most willingly bind our selves every one of us to the other joyntly and severally in the Band of one Firm and Loyal Society And do hereby Vow and Promise by the MAJESTY OF ALMIGHTY GOD That with our whole Powers Bodies Lives and Goods and with our Children and Servants We and every of us will faithfully serve and humbly obey our said Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth against all States Dignities and Earthly Powers whatsoever and will as well with our joynt and particular Forces during our Lives withstand offend and pursue as well by Force of Arms as by all other means of Revenge all manner of Persons of what State soever they shall be and their Abettors that shall attempt any Act Council or Consent to any thing that shall tend to the Harm of her Majesties Royal Person and will never desist from all manner of Forcible Pursuit against such Persons to the utter Extermination of them their Counsellors Aiders and Abettors And if any such wicked Attempt against her most Royal Person shall be taken in hand or procured whereby any that have may or shall pretend Title to come to this Crown by the untimely Death of her Majesty so wickedly procured which God for his Mercy sake forbid may be avenged We do not only bind our selves both joyntly and severally never to Allow Accept or Favour any such pretended Successor by whom or for whom any such detestable Act shall be Attempted or Committed as unworthy of all Government in any Christian Realm or Civil State But do also further Vow and Protest as we are most bound and that in the Presence of the Eternal and Everlasting God to Prosecute such Person and Persons to Death with our joynt or particular Forces and to ask the utmost Revenge upon them that by any means we or any of us can devise and do or cause to be devised and done for their utter Overthrow and Extirpation And to the better Corroboration of this our Loyal Band and Association We do also testifie by this Writing that we do confirm the Contents hereof by our Oaths corporally taken upon the Holy Evangelist with this express Condition That no one of us shall for any respect of Persons or Causes or for Fear or Reward separate our selves from this Association or fail in the Prosecution thereof during our Lives upon pain of being by the rest of us prosecuted and supprest as perjur'd Persons and as Publick Enemies to God our Queen and to our Native Country To which Punishment and Pains we do voluntarily submit ourselves and every of us without Benefit of any Colour or Pretence In Witness of all which Premises to be inviolably kept we do to this Writing put our Hands and Seals and shall be most ready to accept and admit any other hereafter to this Society and Association The ACT of Parliament of the 27th of Queen Elizabeth in Confirmation of the same FOrasmuch as the good Felicity and Comfort of the whole Estate of this Realm consisteth only next under God in the Surety and Preservation of the Queens most excellent Majesty And for that it hath manifestly appeared that sundry wicked Plots and Means have of late been devised and laid as well in Foreign Parts beyond the Seas as also within this Realm to the great indangering of his Highness most Royal Person and to the utter Ruine of the whole Commonweal if by Gods merciful Providence the same had not been revealed Therefore for preventing of such great Perils as might hereafter otherwise grow by the like detestable and divilish Practices at the humble Suit and earnest Petition and Desire of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same Parliament Be it Enacted and Ordained if at any Time after the end of this present Session of Parliament any open Invasion or Rebellion shall be had or made into or within any of Her Majesties Realms or Dominions or any Act attempted tending to the hurt of her Majesties most Royal Person by or for any Person that shall or may pretend any Title to the Crown of this Realm after her Majesties Decease or if any thing shall be compassed or imagined tending to the hurt of her Majesties Royal Person by any person or with the Privity of any person that shall or may pretend Title to the Crown of this Realm that then by Her Majesties Commission under Her Great Seal the Lords and other of Her Highness Privy Council and such other Lords of Parliament to be Named by her Majesty as with the said Privy Council shall make up the Number of Four and twenty at the least ving with them for their Assistance in that behalf such of the Judges of the Courts of Record at Westminster as Her Highness shall for that purpose assign and appoint or the more part of the same Council Lords and Judges shall by virtue of the Act have Authority to examine all and every the Offences aforesaid and all Circumstances thereof and thereupon to give Sentence or Judgment as upon good proof the matter shall appear unto them And that after such Sentence or Judgment given and Declaration thereof made and published by Her Majesties Proclamation under the Great Seal of England all persons against whom such Sentence or Judgment shall be so given and published shall be excluded and disabled for ever to have or claim or to pretend to have or claim the Crown of this Realm or of any Her Majesties Dominions any former Law or Statute whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And that thereupon All Her Highness Subjects shall and may lawfully by virtue of this Act and Her Majesties Direction in that behalf by forcible and possible means pursue to Death every such wicked person by whom or by whose means assent or privity any such Invasion or Rebellion shall be in Form aforesaid denounced to have been made or such wicked Act attempted or other thing compassed or imagined against Her Majesties Person and all their Aiders Comforters and Abettors And if any such detestible Act shall be Executed against her Highness most Royal Person whereby Her Majesties Life shall be taken away which God of his great mercy forbid that then every such person by or for whom any such Act shall be executed and their Issues being any wise assenting or privy to the same shall by virtue of this Act be excluded and disabled for ever to have or claim or pretend to have or claim the said Crown of this Realm or of any other Her Highness Dominions any former Law or Statute whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And that all the Subjects of this Realm and all other Her Majesties Dominions shall and may lawfully by virtue of this Act by all forcible and possible means pursue to Death every such wicked Person by whom or by whose means any such detestible Fact shall be in Form hereafter expressed denounced to have been
those vast Lands Jurisdictions and Superiorities justly forfaulted to His Majesty by the Crimes of your deceased Father preferring your Family to those who had served His Majesty against it in the late Rebellion but also pardoned and remitted to you the Crimes of Leasing-making and misconstruing His Majesties and his Parliaments proceedings against the very Laws above-written whereof you were found guilty and condemned to die therefore by the High Court of Parliament the 25th of August 1662. and raised you to the Title and Dignity of an Earl and being a Member of all His Majesties Judicatures Notwithstanding of all these and many other favours you the said Archibald Earl of Argyle being put by the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council to take the Test appointed by the Act of the last Parliament to be taken by all persons in publick Trust you instead of taking the said Test and swearing the same in the plain genuine sense and meaning of the words without any equivocation mental reservation or evasion whatsoever you did declare against and defame the said Act and having to the end you might corrupt others by your pernicious sense drawn the same in a Libel of which Libel you dispersed and gave abroad Copies whereby ill impressions were given of the King and Parliaments proceedings at a time especially when His Majesties Subjects were expecting what submission should be given to the said Test and being desired the next day to take the same as one of the Commissioners of His Majesties Treasury you did give into the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council and owned twice in plain judgment before them the said defamatory Libel against the said Test and Act of Parliament declaring That you had considered the said Test and was desirous to give obedience as far as you could whereby you clearly insinuated that you was not able to give full obedience In the second Article of which Libel you declare That you were confident the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths thereby to abuse the people with a belief that the Parliament had been so impious as really and actually to have imposed contradictory Oaths and so ridiculous as to have made an Act of Parliament which should be most deliberate of all humane actions quite contrary to their own intentions after which you subsumed contrary to the nature of all Oaths and to the Acts of Parliament above cited that every man must explain it for himself and take it in his own sense by which not only that excellent Law and the Oath therein specified which is intended to be a Fence to the Government both of Church and State but all other Oaths and Laws shall be rendered altogether useless to the Government If every man take the Oaths imposed by Law in his own sense then the Oath imposed is to no purpose for the Legislator cannot be sure that the Oath imposed by him will bind the takers according to the design and intent for which he appointed it and the Legislative Power is taken from the Imposers and settled in the taker of the Oath and so he is allowed to be the Legislator which is not only an open and violent depraving of His Majesties Laws and Acts of Parliament but is likewise a settling of the Legislative Power on private Subjects who are to take such Oaths In the third Article of that Paper you declare That you take the Test in so far only as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion by which you maliciously intimate to the people That the said Oath is inconsistent with it self and with the Protestant Religion which is not only a down right depraving of the said Act of Parliament but is likewise a misconstruing of His Majesties and the Parliaments proceedings and misrepresenting them to the people in the highest degree and in the tenderest points they can be concerned and implying that the King and Parliament have done things inconsistent with the Protestant Religion for securing of which that Test was particularly intended In the Fourth Article you do expresly declare that you mean not by taking the said Test to bind up your self from wishing and endeavouring any alteration in a lawful way that you shall think fit for advancing of Church and State whereby also it was designed by the said Act of Parliament and Oath That no man should make any alteration in the Government of Church and State as it is now established and that it is the Duty of all good Subjects in humble and quiet manner to obey the present Government Yet you not only declare your self but by your example you invite others to think themselves loosed from that Obligation and that it is free for them to make any alteration in either as they shall think fit concluding your whole Paper with these words And this I understand as a part of my Oath which is a treasonable invasion upon the Royal Legislative Power as if it were lawful for you to make to your self an Act of Parliament since he who can make any part of an Act may make the whole the Power and Authority in both being the same Of the which Crimes above mentioned you the said Archibald Earl of Argyle are Actor Art and Part which being found by the Assize you ought to be punished with the pains of Death fortâ—ulture and escheat of Lands and Goods to the terror of others to commit the like hereafter An Abstract of the several Acts of Parliament upon which the Indictment against the Earl of Argyle was grounded Concerning raisers of Rumours betwixt the King and his people Chap. 20.1 Statutes of King Robert 1. IT is defended and forbidden That no man be a Conspirator or Inventer of Narrations or Rumours by the which occasion of discord may arise betwixt the King and his people And if any such man shall be found and attainted thereof incontinent be shall be taken and put in Prison and there shall be surely keeped up ay and while the King declare his will anent him Act 43. of Par. 2. King James 1. March 11. 1424. Leasing-makers forfault Life and Goods ITem It is ordained by the King and whole Parliament that all Leasingmakers and tellers of them which may engender discord betwixt the King and his people wherever they may be gotten shall be challenged by them that power has and ryne Lâ—â—e and Goods to the King Act 83. Par. 6. James 5. Dec. 10. 1540. Of Leasing-makers ITem Touching the Article of Leasing-makers to the Kings Grace of his Barons great men and Leiges and for punishment to be put to them therefore the Kings Grace with advice of his three Estates ratifies and approves the Acts and Statutes made thereupon before and ordains the same to be put in execution in all points and also Statutes and ordains That if any manner of person makes any evil Information of his Highness to his Barons and Leiges that they shall be punished in such manner and by the same punishment as
That Parliaments are part of the frame of the Common-Law which is laid in the Law and Light of Nature right Reason and Scripture 2. That according to this Moral Law of Equity and Righteousness Parliaments ought frequently to meet for the common peace safety and benefit of the People and support of the Government 3. That Parliaments have been all along esteemed an essential part of the Government as being the most ancient honourable and Sovereign Court in the Nation who are frequently and perpetually to sit for the making and abolishing Laws Redressing of Grievances and see to the due administration of Justice 4. That as to the place of Meeting it was to be at London the Capital City the Eye and Heart of the Nation as being not only the Regal Seat but the principal place of Judicature and residence of the chief Officers and Courts of Justice where also the Records are kept as well as the principal place of Commerce and Concourse in the Nation and to which the People may have the best recourse and where they may find the best accommodation 5. The Antiquity of Parliaments in this Nation which have been so ancient that no Record can give any account of their Beginning my Lord Coke thus tracing them from the Britains through the Saxons Danes and Normans to our days So that not to suffer Parliaments to sit to answer the great ends for which they were Instituted is expresly contrary to the Common Law and so consequently of the Law of God as well as the Law of Nature and thereby Violence is offered to the Government it self and Infringement of the Peoples fundamental Rights and Liberties Secondly What we find hereof in the Statute-Law The Statute Laws are Acts of Parliament which are or ought to be only Declaratory of the Common Law which as you have heard is founded upon right Reason and Scripture for we are told that if any thing is Enacted contrary thereto it is void and null As Coke Inst l. 2. c 29. f. 15. Finch p. 3. 28 H. 8. c. 27. Doct. and Stud. The first of these Statures which require the frequent Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments agreeable to the Common Law we find to be in the time of Ed. 3. viz. 4 Ed. 3. ch 14. In these words ' Item It is accorded that a Pariament shall be holden every year once or more often if need be The next is in the 36 of the same K. Ed. 3. c. 10. viz. Item For the maintenance of the said Articles and Statutes and Redressing of divers Mischiefs and Grievances which dayly happen a Parliament shall be holden every year as at another time was ordained by a Statute viz. the aforementioned in his 4th year And agreeable hereto are those Statutes upon the Rolls viz. 5 Ed. 2. 1 R. 2. No. 95. By which Statutes it appeareth That Parliaments ought annually to meet to support the Government and to redress the Grievances which may happen in the Interval of Parliaments That being the great End proposed in their said Meetings Now for Parliaments to meet Annually and not suffered to sit to Answer the Ends but to be Prorogued or Dissolved before they have finished their Work would be nothing but a deluding the Law and a striking at the foundation of the Government it self and rendering Parliaments altogether useless for it would be all one to have No Parliaments at all as to have them turn'd off by the Prince before they have done that that they were called and intrusted to do For by the same Rule whereby they may be so turn'd off one Session they may be three Sessions and so to threescore to the breaking of the Government and introducing Arbitrary Power To prevent such intollerable Mischiefs and Inconveniencies are such good Laws as these made in this King's time and which were so Sacredly observed in after times That it was a Custom especially in the Reigns of H. 4. H 5. H. 6. to have a Proclamation made in Westminster-Hall before the end of every Session * An honest and a necessary Proclamation to be made every Parliament That all those who had any matter to present to the Parliament should bring it in before such a day for otherwise the Parliament at that day should Determine Whereby it appears the People were not to be eluded nor disappointed by surprizing Prorogations and Dissolutions to frustrate and make void the great ends of Parliaments And to this purpose saith a late Learned Author That if there was no Statute or any thing upon record extant concerning the Parliaments sitting to redress grievances yet that I must believe that it is so by the fundamental Law of the Government which must be lame and imperfect without it For otherwise the Prince and his Ministers may do what they please and their Wills may be their Laws Therefore it is provided for in the very Essence and Constitution of the Government it self and this saith our Author we may call the Common-Law which is of as much value if not more than any Statute and of which all our good Acts of Parliament and Magna-Charta it self is but Delaratory so that though the King is intrusted with the formal part of summoning and pronouncing the Dissolution of Parliaments which is done by Writ yet the Laws which oblige him as well as us have determined how and when he shall do it which is enough to shew that the King's share in the Soveraignty that is in the Parliament is cut out to him by Law and not left at his disposal The next Statute we shall mention to inforce this fundamental Right and Privilege 25 Ed. 3. c. 23. Statute of Provisors is the 25th Ed. 3. ch 23. called the Statute of Provisors which was made to prevent and cut off the Incroachments of the Bishops of Rome whose Usurpations in disposing of Benefices occasioned intollerable Grievances wherein in the Preamble of the said Statute it is expressed as followeth Whereupon the Commons have prayed our said Soveraign Lord the King that sith the Right of the Crown of England and the Law of the said Realm is such that upon the Mischiefs and Damage which happeneth to his Realm be ought and is bounden of the accord of his said People in his Parliament thereof to make Remedy and Law in avoiding the Mischiefs and Damage which thereof cometh That it may please him thereupon to provide Remedy Our Soveraign Lord the King seeing the Mischiefs and Damage before-named and having regard to the said Statute made in the time of his said Grand-Father and to the Causes contained in the same which Statute holdeth always his force and was never defeated or annulled in any point and by so much is bound by his Oath to do the same to be kept as the Law of this Realm tho that by Sufferance and Negligence it hath since been attempted to the contrary And also having regard to the grievous Complainte made to him by his
Tenderness as well as Wisdom and Prudence for redressing the Grievances easing the Troubles and providing for the Benefit and Safety of all that are wrapt up in and represented by them And as every Prince who sincerely seeks and pursues the Advantage of his People will so adjust and attemper all his Actions towards them that his whole Carriage shall be uniform and all the Exercises of his Governing Power meet in the benefit of the Community as so many lines from a circumference uniting in their Centre so there needs no other proof that these two or three late Actions of His Majesty which a foolish sort of men are apt to interpret for favours and to account them effects of Compassion and Kindness are but to conceal his Malice and to subserve as well as cover some fatal and pernicious Design that he is carrying on against his Protestant Subjects than that while he is gratifying a few of them in one thing he is at the same time robbing all of them of many and that while he is indulging the Dissenters with a freedom from the penal Laws for matters of Religion he is invading the Properties and subverting the Civil Rights of the three Nations and changing the whole Constitution of the Government He that strips us of what belongs unto us as we are English and Scots men cannot mean honestly in the favours he pretends to vouchsafe us as we are Christians nor can he that is endeavouring to enslave our Persons and to subject our Estates to his arbitrary Lust and Pleasure intend any thing else by this kindness granted to Fanaticks in matters of Religion than the dividing them from the rest of the People in what concerns the Civil Interest and external happiness of the Community and to render them an engaged Faction to assist and abet him in enthralling the Kingdoms Whosoever considers the whole Tenor of His Majesty's other Actings in proroguing and dissolving Parliaments when he finds them uncompliant with his Popish and Despotical Ends his keeping on foot a formidable Army against all the Laws of the Land and upon no other intention but to maintain him in his Usurpations over our Rights and to awe us into a tame and servile submission to his Prerogative Will his filling all places of Judicature with weak as well as treacherous persons who instead of administring Justice may be the Instruments of Tyranny his robbing men of their Estates by judicial forms and under pretence that nullum tempus occurrit Regi after they have been quietly enjoyed by the Subjects for several hundred years his advancing none to Civil or Military Employs but whom he hath some confidence in as to the finding them ready to execute his despotical Injunctions and his esteeming no persons loyal and faithful to himself save those who are willing to betray their Country and be Rebels and Traitors against the Legal Constitution I say whosoever considers all this and a great deal more of the same hue and complexion cannot imagine unless he be under a judicial blindness and a strange infatuation that any thing arriving from the King tho it may be a matter wherein they may find their present ease and advantage should proceed from compassion and good will to his Protestant Subjects but that it must be only in order to promote a distinct interest from that of his People and for the better and more easie accomplishing of some wicked and unjustifiable Design And tho his Majesty would have us believe that the reasons moving him to the emission of this second Proclamation were the sinistruous Interpretations which either have or may be made of some Restrictions in his former yet it is not difficult even without being of his Privy Council to assign a truer motive and a more real and effectual cause of it For as that of the 12 of February came forth attended with so many limitations not easie to be digested by men of Wisdom or Honesty lest if it had been more unconfined and extensive and should have opened a door for all Scots Dissenters to have gone in and taken the benefit of it the generality of Protestants in that Kingdom abstracting from the Bishops Curates and a few others should have joined in the separate Interest and thereby have become an united Body against Popery but upon finding that hardly any would purchase their freedom from the penal Laws at so dear a rate as to do things so unbecoming Men and Christians as the conforming to the Terms therein prescribed obliged them unto and that as they of the National Communion were alarm'd and disgusted so fesh or none of the Dissenting Fellowships were pleased and that both were not only angry at the many illegal favours and threatning advantages bestowed upon the Papists but were grown so sensible of the Design carrying on against the Protestant Religion and the Liberties and Privileges of the Subject that tho they could not renounce their respective Tenets in the matters wherein they differed yet they were willing to stifle their Heats and Animosities and to give that Encouragement Aid and Assistance to one another as was necessary for their common safety upon these Cnnsiderations his Majesty if he would have spoken fincerely ought to have said that he had published this new Proclamation in order to hinder Scots Protestants from uniting for their mutual defence against Turkish Tyranny and Romish Idolatry in hopes thereby to continue and exasperate their undue and passionate heats and to steep them not only in divided and opposite interests but to make them contribute to the suppressing and ruining each other or at least to look on unconcernedly till he have ripened his Designs against them both and be prepared for extirpating the Reformed Religion and for subverting the Fundamental as well as Statute Laws and for bringing such to the Stake and Gibbet as shall have the Integrity to assert the one or the Courage to plead for the other And yet in his last Proclamation wherein he grants a more illimited Freedom than in the former and promiseth to protect all in the Exercise of Their Protestant Religion as he Disdainfully and Ignominiously calls it there is a Clause that may discourage all honest Men from owning their Liberty to the Authority that bestows it and from which it is derived and conveyed to them For not being satisfied to superstruct his pretended Right of Suspending Stopping and Disabling Laws upon his Sovereign Authority and Prerogative Royal but as knowing that these give no such Pre-eminence and Jurisdiction over the Laws of the Kingdom he is pleased to challenge unto himself an Absolute Power as the Source and Spring of that Exorbitant and Paramount Claim which he therein exerciseth and exerts And forasmuch as Absolute Power imports his Majesties being loose and free from all Ties and Restraints either by Fundamental Stipulations or superadded Laws it is very Natural to observe that he allows the Government under which we were born and to which
would not have been a very melancholy Present Have not you frank and dutiful Expressions that cheerfulness and vivacity in your Looks rendred much more acceptable much more valuable No Prince in Christendom loves a cheerful giver so well as God Almighty does and he of all Gifts a cheerful Heart and therefore I pray let not a cloudy and disconsolate face be the only or the best sign of Piety and Devotion in the Heart I must ask your Pardon for misplacing much of this Discourse which I should have mentioned when I came to speak of the Ministers Bill they I hope will endeavour to remove these new marks of Dinstinction and Reproaches and keep their Auditories from being imposed upon by such Characters and Descriptions The King hath passed this Act very willingly and done much to the end of this Act before yet hath willingly admitted you to be Sharers and Partners with Him in the Obligation I may say confidently His Majesty hath never denied His Confirmation to any Man in Possession who hath asked it and they have all the effect of it except such who upon Examination and Enquiry appeared not worthy of it and such who though they are pardoned cannot yet think themselves worthy to be preferr'd His Majesty well knows that by this Act he hath gratified and obliged many worthy and pious Men who have contributed much to His Restauration and who shall always receive fresh Evidence of His Majesties Favour and Kindness but he is not sure that he may not likewise have gratified some who did neither contribute to His coming in nor are yet glad that he is in how comes it else to pass that he receives such frequent informations of Seditious Sermons in the City and the Countrey in which all Industry is used to alienate the Affections of the People and to infuse Jealousies into them of the King and His Government They talk of introducing Popery of evil Councellors and such other old Calumnies as are pardoned by this Act of Indempnity His Majesty told You when he was last here what Rigour and Severity He will hereafter use how contrary soever it is to his Nature in these Cases and conjured You My Lords and Gentlemen to concur with him in this just and necessary Severity which I am sure You will do with Your utmost Vigilance and that You will believe that too much ill cannot befall those who do the best they can to corrupt His Majesties Nature and to extinguish His Mercy My Lords and Gentlemen I told You I was to acquaint you with some things His Majesty intends to do during this Recess that You may see He will give no intermission to His Own thoughts for the Publick good though for a time He Dispences with Your Assistance He doth consider the infinite Importance the Improvement of Trade must be to this Kingdom and therefore His Majesty intends forthwith to Establish a Council for Trade consisting of some Principal Merchants of the several Companies to which he will add some Gentlemen of Quality and Experience and for their greater Honour and Encouragement some of my Lords of His own Privy Council In the next Place His Majesty hopes that a well-setled Peace and Gods great Blessing upon Him and You this Nation will in a short time flourish to that Degree that the Land of Canaan did when Esau found it necessary to part from his Brother For their riches were more then that they might dwell together and the land wherein they were could not bear them because of their cattel We have been Our selves very near this Pinacle of happiness and the hope and Contemplation that We may be so again disposes the King to be very solicitous for the Improvement and Prosperity of His Plantations abroad where there is such large room for the Industry and Reception of such who shall desire to go thither and therefore His Majesty likewise intends to erect and establish a Councel for those Plantations in which persons well qualified shall be wholly intent upon the good and advancement of those Plantations There are two other particulars which I am commanded to mention which were both mentioned and recommended to You by His Majesty in his Declaration from Breda The one for the Confirmation of Sales or other Recompence for Purchasers The other for the composing those Differences and Distempers in Religion which have too much disturbed the Peace of the Kingdom Two very weighty particulars in which His Majesty knows You have spent much time and concerning which he should have heard from You before this time if You had not met with great difficulties in the Disquisition of either For the First His Majesty hath not been without much thought upon the Argument and hath done much towards the Accommodation of many particular Persons and You shall not be at Your Journeys end before His Majesty will put that Business concerning Sales into such a way of Dispatch that he doubts not You will find a good Progress made in it before Your coming together again and I believe the Persons concerned will be very much to blame if they receive not good Satisfaction And some of You who stay in Town shall be advised and consulted with that Setlement The other of Religion is a sad Argument indeed It is a Consideration that must make every religious heart to bleed to see Religion which should be the strongest obligation and cement of Affection and brotherly kindness and compassion made now by the Wranglings of passionate and froward Men the ground of all animosity hatred malice and revenge And this unruly and unmanly Passion which no question the Divine Nature exceedingly abhors sometimes and I fear too frequently transports those who are in the right as well those who are in the wrong and leaves the latter more excusable then the former when men who find their manners and dispositions very conformable in all the necessary obligations of humane Nature avoid one anothers Conversation and grow first unsociable and then uncharitable to each other because one cannot think as the other doth And from this separation we intitle God to the Patronage of and Concernment in our Fancies and Distinction and purely for his sake hate one another heartily It was not so of old when one of the most ancient Fathers of the Church tells us That Love and Charity was so signal and eminent in the Primitive Christians that it even drew Admiration and Envy from their Adversaries Vide inquiunt ut invicim se diligunt Their Adversaries in that in which they most agreed in their very prosecution of them had their Passions and Animosities amongst themselves they were only Christians that loved and cherished and comforted and were ready to die for one another Quid nunc illi dicerent Christiani si nostra viderent tempora says the incomparable Grotius How would they look upon our sharp and virulent Contentions in the Debates of Christian Religion and the bloudy wars that have proceeded
consult their own good but he comes only at the time of Enacting bringing his Royal Authority with him as it were to set the Seal thereof to the Indenture already prepared by the People for the King is Head of the Parliament in regard of his Authority not in regard of his Reason or Judgment as if it were to be opposed to the Reason or Judgment of both Houses which is the Reason both of King and Kingdom and therefore do they as consult so also interpret Laws without him supposing him to be a Person replenished with Honour and Royal Authority not skilled in Laws nor to receive Information either of Law or Councel in Parliamentary Affairs from any saving from that supreme Court and highest Councel of the King and Kingdom which admits no counterpoise being intrusted both as the wisest Counsel and justest Judicature Fourthly either the choise of the People in Parliament is to be the Ground and Rule of the Kings Assent or nothing but his Pleasure and so all Bills tho' never so necessary for publick Good and Preservation and after never so much pains and consultation of both Houses may be rejected and so they made meer Cyphers and we brought to that pass as neither to have no Laws or such only as come immediately from the King who oft is a man of Pleasure and little seen in publick Affairs to be able to judge and so the Kingdoms great Councel must be subordinated either to his meer Will and then what Difference between a free Monarchy and an absolute saving that the one rules without Councel and the other against it or at the best but to a Cabinet Councel consisting commonly of Men of private Interests but certainly of no publick Trust Ob. But if the King must consent to such Laws as the Parliament shall chuse eo nomine they may then propound unreasonable things to him as to consent to his own Deposing or to the lessening his own Revenue c. Ans So that the issue is whether it be fitter to trust the Wisdom and Integrity of our Parliament or the Will and Pleasure of the King in this case of so great and publick Concernment In a word the King being made the Fountain of Justice and Protection to his People by the fundamental Laws or Constitution of this Kingdom he is therefore to give life to such Acts and Things as tend thereunto which Acts depend not upon his Pleasure but though they are to receive their greater Vigour from him yet are they not to be suspended at pleasure by him for that which at first was intended by the Kingdom for an honourable way of Subsistence and Administration must not be wrested contrrry to the nature of this Polity which is a free and mist Monarchy and not absolute to its Destruction and Confusion so that in case the King in his Person should decline his Duty the King in his Courts is bound to perform it where his Authority properly resides for if he refuse that Honour which the Republick by its fundamental Constitution hath conferred upon him and will not put forth the Acts of it for the end it was given him viz. for the Justice and Safety of his People this hinders not but that they who have as fundamentally reserved a Power of being and well-being in their own hands by the Concurrence of Parliamentary Authority to the Royal Dignity may thereby provide for their own Subsistence wherein is acted the Kings juridical Authority though his personal pleasure be withheld for his legal and juridical Power is included and supposed in the very being and consequently in the Acts of Courts of Justice whose being he may as well suspend as their Power of Acting for that without this is but a Cypher and therefore neither their being nor their acting so depend upon him as not to be able to act and execute common Justice and Protection without him in case he deny to act with them and yet both so depend upon him as that he is bound both in Duty and Honour by the Constitution of this Polity to act in them and they for him so that according to that Axiom in Law The King can do no wrong because his juridical Power and Authority is always to controle his personal Miscarriages London's Flames Revivd OR AN ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL INFORMATIONS Exhibited to a Committee appointed by PARLIAMENT September the 25th 1666. To Enquire into the BURNING of LONDON WITH Several other Informations concerning other Fires in Southwark Fetter-Lane and elsewhere UPon the Second of September 1666. the Fire began in London at one Farriner 's House a Baker in Pudding-Lane between the Hours of One and Two in the Morning and continued burning until the Sixth of September following consuming as by the Surveyors appears in Print Three hundred seventy three Acres within the Walls of the City of London and Sixty three Acres and Three Roods without the Walls There remains Seventy five Acres and Three Roods yet standing within the Walls unburnt Eighty nine Parish Churches besides Chappels burnt Eleven Parishes within the Walls yet standing Houses burnt Thirteen thousand and two hundred Per Jonas Moore Ralph Gatrix Surveyors UPon the 18th Day of September 1666. the Parliament came together And upon the 25th of the same Month the House of Commons appointed a Committee to enquire into the Causes of the late Fire before whom the following Informations were given in and proved before the Committee as by their Report will more clearly appear bearing date the 22th of January 1666. and upon the 8th of February following the Parliament was Prorogued before they came to give their Judgment thereupon Die Martis 25 Septembris 1666. 18 Car. 2. Resolved c. THat a Committee be appointed to enquire into the Causes of the late Fire and that it be referred to Sir Charles Harbord Mr. Sandys Col. Birch Sir Robert Brook Sir Thomas Littleton Mr. Prin Mr. Jones Sir Solomon Swale Sir Thomas Tomlins Mr. Seymour Mr. Finch Lord Herbert Sir John Heath Mr. Milward Sir Richard Ford Mr. Robert Milward Sir William Lowther Sir Richard Vatley Sir Rowland Beckley Sir Thomas Allen Mr. Whorwood Mr. Coventry Serj. Maynard Sir John Talbot Mr. Morley Mr. Garraway Sir Francis Goodrick Col. Strangeways Sir Edward Massey Sir Edmond Walpool Sir Robert Atkins Sir Thomas Gower Mr. Trevor Sir Thomas Clifford Sir Henry Caesar Sir John Monson Sir John Charleton Lord Ancram Mr. Pepis Sir Richard Everard Mr. Crouch Mr. Merrel Sir William Hickman Sir Richard Brown Mr. Maynard And they are to meet to Morrow at Two of the Clock in the After-noon in the Speaker's Chamber and to send for Persons Papers and Records William Goldsbrough Cler. Dom. Com. October 9. 1666. Ordered that these Members following be added to the Committee appointed to Enquire into the Causes of the late Fire viz. Sir John Pelham Mr. Hugh Buscowen Mr. Giles Hungerford Sir William Lewis Sir Gilbert Gerrard Sir John Brampstone Mr. Milward Mr. Buscowen
Zeal for the Protestant Religion of your Loyalty to his Majesty's Person and Government and of your faithful Endeavours for the Preservation of the Laws our Rights and Properties we now return you our most hearty Thanks and have unanimously chosen you to represent this County at the Parliament to be holden at Oxford the 21st of March next And though we have not the least distrust of your Wisdom to understand or of your Integrity and Resolution to maintain and promote our common Interests now in so great hazard yet we think it meet at this time of imminent Danger to the King and Kingdom to recommend some things to your Care And particularly we do desire 1. That as hitherto you have so you will vigorously prosecute the Execrable Popish Plot now more fully discovered and proved by the Trial of William late Viscount Stafford 2. That you will promote a Bill for excluding James D. of York and all Popish Successors from the Imperial Crown of this Realm as that which under God may probably be a present and effectual means for the preservation of his Majesty's Life which God preserve the Protestant Religion and the well-established Government of this Kingdom 3. That you will endeavour the frequent meetings of Parliaments and their sitting so long as it shall be requisite for the dispatch of those great Affairs for which they are convened as that which is our only Bulwark against Arbitrary Power 4. That you will endeavour an happy and necessary Union amongst all his Majesty's Protestant Subjects by promoting those several good Bills which were to that end before the last Parliament And that till these things be obtained which we conceive necessary even to the Being of this Nation you will not consent to bring any Charge upon our Estates And we do assure you that we will stand by you with our Lives and Fortunes in Prosecution of the good ends before recited The Address of the Town of Hertford February 21. 1680 1. To the Right Worshipful Sir William Cooper Baronet and Sir Thomas Byde Knight WE the Free-men and Inhabitants of the Burrough of Hertford in the County of Hertford having unanimously Chosen You our Representatives to Sit in the next ensuing Parliament to be holden at Oxford the 21st of March next cannot but with all Thankfulness acknowledge your most faithful Endeavours and unwearied Pains in serving us in the last Parliament searching into and discovering the late damnable Hellish Popish Plot The preservation of His Majesty's Person the Protestant Religion and the well established Government of the Realm To secure the Meeting and Sitting of frequent Parliaments to assert our undoubted Right of Petitioning and to punish such who would have betrayed those Rights To promote a happy Union amongst all His Majesty's Protestant Subjects to Repeal the Act of the 35th of Queen Elizabeth and the Corporation Act and particularly for what Progress hath been made in the Bill of Exclusion of all Popish Successors the principal Cause of all the Miseries and Ruine impending these Kingdoms in general beseeching You as now our Representatives to prosecute the same good Ends and Purposes until the Nation shall be throughly secured against Popery and Arbitrary Power both in Church and State And further in imitation of the ever Renowned City of London We Request You in our behalf to present our humble Acknowledgements to the Right Honorable the Earl of Essex and by him to all the rest of those Right Honorable Peers for their late Excellent Petition and Advice to His Majesty and for all the rest of all their Faithfull Services and Endeavours they have performed for the Protestant Interest of the Nation The Address of the Gentry and Free-holders of the County of Essex To Sir Henry Mildmay and John Lemot Honeywood Esquire Unanimously Re elected Knights for the Shire Feb. 22. 1680 1. Gentlemen THe Faithful Discharge of that Trust we formerly gave You is the true Inducement of our Chusing You again to be our Representatives being abundantly satisfied not only in Your Care and Prudence in General but also in Your Particular Care and Unwearied Diligence in Your Conscientious Endeavours to secure His Majesty's Royal Person the Protestant Religion and Government of the Realm To Unite all His Majesty's Protestant Subjects To Repeal the Act of the 35th of Elizabeth To Assert our just and ancient Rights and Priviledges and particularly that of Petitioning and to punish those who were studious to betray them For Your two excellent Addresses and Publishing Your Votes Endeavouring to secure the Meeting and Sitting of Frequent Parliaments To destroy and root out Popery by securing us against all Popish Successors and particularly by passing a Bill against James Duke of York without which we are highly sensible that all other means will be ineffectual and the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom and government it self left in great danger it being inconsistent with our Oath by which we swear against the Pope's Supremacy whil'st a Popish King himself owns it and it being against the Essence of Government that People should obey him who by his Principles as a Papist is bound to destroy them And as we do heartily thank You for Your past worthy Behaviour herein so we have chosen You to Act on our behalf in the next Parliament to be holden at Oxford in full trust and considence that with Courage and Integrity You will persevere in the same good Endeavours pursuing all things that shall be found for our Publick Good and Safety And in full Assurance that You will not consent to the disposal of any of our Moneys till we are effectually secured against Popery and Arbitrary Power And untill the Fleet and Garisons are settled in the hands of such as are Persons of known Loyalty and Fidelity to the King and Kingdom and true Zeal and Affection for the Protestant Religion and we do resolve by Divine Assistance to stand by You therein with our Lives and Fortunes 'T is observable That this Address being openly read to their Representatives and confirm'd by the Unanimous and loud Acclamations of the Free-holders for further demonstration that it was the Sense of each individual person of that Numerous Assembly it was offered that so many as agreed to it should say Ay upon which they all cried out Ay Ay. And if any were otherwise minded they were desired to express their Dissent by saying No At which there was Altum Silentium not one to be heard saying No. The Address of the Gentry and other Free-holders of the County of Surrey being in number about 2000 Feb. 23. 1680 1. To Arthur Onslow and George Evelin Esquires elected Knights for this County in the ensuing Parliament whose Session is appointed at Oxon the 21st of the following Month. WE the Free-holders of the County of Surrey having in the two former Parliaments chosen you to be our Representatives and being fully satisfied in your Faithfullness and Care to preserve the Protestant Religion
another making a Speech that no Man understood a third all the time of the reading repeating Lord have mercy upon me miserable sinner Nay even an Advocate after being debarred a few days because albeit no Clerk yet he would not take it without the benefit of his Clergy viz. the Councils Explanation was yet thereafter admitted without the Warrant of the Councils Act but all this in the Case of so many other was right and good Further the Council expresly declare the Earl to be Guilty before he had ever said one word in his own defence Thereafter some of them become his Assizers and others of them witness against him and after all they do of new concern themselves by a Second Letter to His Majesty wherein they assert That after full debate and clear probation he was found guilty of Treason c. to have a sentence past against him and that of so high a nature and so dreadful a consequence as suffers no person to be unconcerned far less their Lordships his Judges who upon grounds equally just and which is more already predetermined by themselves may soon meet with the same measure not only as Concealers of Treason but upon the least pretended disobedience or non-compliance with any Act of Parliament and after all must infallably render an account to God Almighty He bids them therefore lay their hands to their bearts and whatever they shall judge he is assured that God knows and he hopes all unblassed men in the World will or may know he is neither guilty of Treason nor any of the Crimes libelled He says he is glad how many out-do him in asserting the true Protestant Religion and their Loyalty to His Majesty only he hadds If he could justify himself to God as he can to His Majesty he is sure he might account himself the happiest man alive But yet seeing he hath a better hope in the mercy of God through Jesus Christ he thereupon rests whether he finds Justice here on Earth or not He says he will add nothing to move them either to tenderness or pity he knows that not to be the place and pretends to neither from them He pleads his Innocence and craves Justice leaving it to their Lordships to consider not so much his particular Case as what a Preparative it may be made and what may be its Consequences And if all he hath said do neither convince nor persuade them to alter their judgment yet he desires them to consider whether the Case do not at least deserve to be more fully represented and left to His Majecty's wisdom and justice seeing that if once the matter pass upon record for Treason it is undoubted that hundreds of the best and who think themselves most innocent may by the same methods fall under the like Condemnation whenever the King's Advocate shall be thereto prompted And thus you have a part of what the Earl intended to have said before pronouncing Sentence if he had not made his Escape before the day Yet some things I perceive by his Notes are still in his own breast as only proper to be said to His Majesty I find several Quotations out of the Advocate 's printed Books that it seems he was to make some use of but seeing it would have been too great an interruption to have applied them to the places designed I have subjoined them together leaving them to the Advocate 's own and all mens consideration It was by some remarked That when the Lords of Justitiary after the ending of the first days debate resolved that same night to give judgment upon it they sent for the Lord Nairn one of their number an old and infirm man who being also a Lord of the Session is so decayed through age that he hath not for a considerable time been allowed to take his turn in the Outer-house as they call it where they judge lesser Causes alone But notwithstanding both his age and infirmity and that he was gone to bed he was raised and brought to the Court to consider a Debate a great deal whereof he had not heard in full Court and withal as is informed while the Clerk was reading some of it fell of new asleep It was also remarked that the Lords of Justitiary being in all five viz. the Lord Nairn above-mentioned with the Lords Collintoun Newtoun Hirkhouse and Forret the Libel was found relevant only by the odds of three to two viz. the Lord Nairn aforesaid the Lord Newtoun since made President of the Session and the Lord Forret both well enough known against the Lord Collintoun a very ingenious Gentleman and a true old Cavalier and the Lord Hirkhouse a learned and upright Judge As for the Lord Justice General who was also present and presided his vote according to the constitution of the Court was not asked But to return to my Narrative the Earl as I have already told you did not think fit for reasons that you shall hear to stay till His Majesty's return came to the Council's last Letter but taking his opportunity made his escape out of the Castle of Edinburgh upon Tuesday the Twentieth of December about eight at night and in a day or two after came His Majesty's Answer here subjoined The King's Answer to the Council's Letter December 18. 1681. C. R. MOST dearly c. having this day received your Letter of the 14th instant giving an account that our Advocate having been ordered by you to insist in that Process raised at our instance against the Earl of Argyle he was after full debate and clear probation found guilty of Treason and Leasing-making betwixt us our Parliament and our People and the reproaching our Laws and Acts of Parliament We have now thought fit notwithstanding of what was ordered by us in our Letter to you of the 15th of November last hereby to authorize you to grant a Warrand to our Justice General and the remanent Judges of our Justice Court for proceeding to pronounce a Sentence upon the Verdict of the Jury against the said Earl nevertheless it is our express pleasure and we do hereby require you to take care that all execution of the Sentence be stopped until we shall think fit to declare our further pleasure in this Affair For doing whereof c. Which Answer being read in Council on the Thursday and the Court of Justiciary according to its last Adjournment as shall be told you being to meet upon the Friday after a little hesitation in Council whether the Court of Justiciary could proceed to the Sentence of Forfaulture against the Earl he being absent it was resolved in the affirmative And what were the grounds urged either of hesitation or resolution I cannot precisely say there being nothing on record that I can learn But that you may have a full and satisfying account I shall briefly tell you what was ordinarily discoursed a part whereof I also find in a Petition given in by the Countess of Argyle to the Lords
of England though I could never yet comply with or rise up to all the heights of many People I wish with all my Soul all our unhappy Differences were removed and that all sincere Protestants would so far consider the Danger of Popery as to lay aside their Heats and agree against the Common Enemy and that the Church-men would be less severe and the Dissenters less scrupulous For I think Bitterness and Persecution are at all times bad but much more now For Popery I look on it as an Idolatrous and Bloody Religion and therefore thought my self bound in my station to do all I could against it And by that I foresaw I should proture such great Enemies to my self and so powerful ones that I have been now for some time expecting the worst And blessed be God I fall by the Axe and not by the Fiery Tryal Yet whatever apprehensions I had of Popery and of my own severe and heavy share I was like to have under it when it should prevail I never had a thought of doing any thing against it basely or inhumanely but what could well consist with the Christian Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom And I thank God I have examin'd all my actings in that matter with so great care that I can appeal to God Almighty who knows my heart that I went on sincerely without being moved either by Passion by-By-ends or ill-design I have always loved my Country much more than my life and never had any Design of changing the Government which I value and look upon as one of the best Governments in the World and would always have been ready to venture my life for the preserving it and would have suffered any Extremity rather than have consented to any Design to take away the King's Life Neither ever had Man the impudence to propose so base and barbarous a thing to me And I look on it as a very unhappy and uneasy part of my present Condition That in my Indictment there should be so much as mention of so vile a Fact tho' nothing in the least was said to prove any such Matter but the contrary by the Lord Howard Neither does any body I am confident believe the least of it So that I need not I think say more For the King I do sincerely pray for him and wish well to him and to the Nation That they may be happy in one another that he may be indeed the Defender of the Faith That the Protestant Religion and the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom may be preserved and flourish under his Government and that He in his Person may be happy both here and hereafter As for the share I had in the Prosecution of the Popish Plot I take God to witness That I proceeded in it in the Sincerity of my heart being then really convinced as I am still that there was a Conspiracy against the King the Nation and the Protestant Religion And I likewise profess That I never knew any thing either directly or indirectly of any Practice with the Witnesses which I look upon as so horrid a thing that I could never have endured it For I thank God Falshood and Cruelty were never in my Nature but always the farthest from it imaginable I did believe and do still That Popery is breaking in upon the Nation and that those who advance it will stop at nothing to carry on their Design I am heartily sorry that so many Protestants give their helping hand to it But I hope God will preserve the Protestant Religion and this Nation Though I am afraid it will fall under very great Tryals and very sharp Sufferings And indeed the Impiety and Prophaneness that abounds and appears so scandalously bare-fac'd every where gives too just reason to fear the worst things which can befall a People I pray God prevent it and give those who have shew'd Concern for the Publick Good and who have appear'd hearty for the true Interest of the Nation and the Protestant Religion Grace to live so that they may not cast a reproach on that which they endeavour to advance which God knows has often given me many sad thoughts And I hope such of my Friends as may think they are touch'd by this will not take what I say in ill part but endeavour to amend their ways and live suitable to the Rules of the true Reformed Religion which is the only thing can administer true Comfort at the latter end and revive a man when he comes to Dye As for my present Condition I bless God I have no repining in my heart at it I know for my Sins I have deserved much worse at the hands of God so that I chearfully submit to so small a Punishment as the being taken off a few years sooner and the being made a Spectacle to the World I do freely forgive all the World particularly those concerned in taking away my life and I desire and conjure my Friends to think of no Revenge but to submit to the holy Will of God into whose Hands I resign my self entirely But to look back a little I cannot but give some touch about the Bill of Exclusion and shew the Reasons of my appearing in that Business which in short is this That I thought the Nation was in such danger of Popery and that the expectation of a Popish Successor as I have said in Parliament put the King's life likewise in such danger that I saw no way so effectual to secure both as such a Bill As to the Limitations which were proposed if they were sincerely offered and had pass'd into a Law the Duke then would have been excluded from the power of a King and the Government quite alter'd and little more than the name of a King left So I could not see either Sin or Fault in the one when all People were willing to admit of t'other but thought it better to have a King with his Prerogative and the Nation easie and safe under him than a King without it which must have bred perpetual Jealousies and a continual struggle All this I say only to justifie my self and not to enflame others Though I cannot but think my Earnestness in that matter has had no small influence in my present Sufferings But I have now done with this World and am going to a Kingdom which cannot be moved And as to the Conspiring to seize the Guards which is the Crime for which I am Condemned and which was made a constructive Treason for taking away the King's Life to bring it within the Statue of Ed. the 3d. I shall give this true and clear account I never was at Mr. Shepheard's with that Company but once and there was no undertaking then of securing or seizing the Guards nor none appointed to view or examine them Some Discourse there was of the feasibleness of it and several times by accident in general Discourse elsewhere I have heard it mention'd as a thing might
the Reign of Our late Royal Brother King Charles the Second shall not at any time hereafter be required to be Taken Declared or Subscribed by any person or persons whatsoever who is or shall be Employed in any Office or Place of Trust either Civil or Military under Us or in Our Government And We do further Declare it to be Our Pleasure and Intention from time to time hereafter to Grant Our Royal Dispensations under Our Great Seal to all our Loving Subjects so to be Employed who shall not take the said Oaths or Subscribe or declare the said Tests or Declarations in the abovementioned Acts and every of them And to the end that all Our Loving Subjects may receive and enjoy the full Benefit and Advantage of Our Gracious Indulgence hereby intended and may be Acquitted and Discharged from all Pains Penalties Forfeitures and Disabilities by them or any of them incurred or forfeited or which they shall or may at any time hereafter be liable to for or by reason of their Non-conformity or the Exercise of their Religion and from all Suits Troubles or Disturbances for the same We do hereby give Our Free and Ample Pardon unto all Non-conformists Recusants and other Our Loving Subjects for all Crimes and Things by them commited or done contrary to the Penal Laws formerly made relating to Religion and the Profession or Exercise thereof Hereby Declaring That this Our Royal pardon and Indempnity shall be as Good and Effectual to all intents and purposes as if every individual person had been therein particularly named or had particular Pardons under Our Great Seal which We do likewise Declare shall from time to time be Granted unto any person or persons desiring the same Willing and Requiring Our Judges Justices and other Officers to take Notice of and Obey Our Royal Will and Pleasure herein before Declared And although the Freedom and Assurance We have hereby given in relation to Religion and Property might be sufficient to remove from the Minds of Our Loving Subjects all Fears and Jealousies in relation to either yet We have thought fit further to Declare That We will Maintain them in all their Properties and Possessions as well of Church and Abby-Lands as in any other their Lands and Properties whatsoever Given at our Court at Whitehall the Fourth Day of April 1687. In the Third Year of Our Reign By His Majesties Special Command A LETTER containing some Reflections on His Majesties Declaration for Liberty of Conscience Dated the Fourth of April 1687. SIR I. I Thank you for the Favour of sending me the late Declaration that His Majesty has granted for Liberty of Conscience I confess I longed for it with great Impatience and was surprised to find it so different from the Scotch Pattern for I imagined that it was to be set to the second part of the same tune nor can I see why the Penners of this have sunk so much in their stile for I suppose the same Men penned both I expected to have seen the Imperial Language of Absolute Power to which all the Subjects are to Obey without reserve and of the Cassing Annulling the stopping and disabling of Laws set forth in the Preamble and body of this Declaration whereas those dreadful words are not to be found here for instead of Repealing the Laws his Majesty pretends by this only to Suspend them and though in effect this amounts to a Repeal yet it must be confessed that the words are softer Now since the Absolute Power to which his Majesty pretends in Scotland is not founded on such poor things as Law for that would look as if it were the gift of the People but on the Divine Authority which is supposed to be delegated to his Majesty this may be as well claimed in England as it was in Scotland and the pretentions to Absolute Power is so great a thing that since his Majesty thought fit once to claim it he is little beholding to those that make him fall so much in his Language especially since both these Declarations have appeared in our Gazettes so that as we see what is done in Scotland we know from hence what is in some peoples hearts and what we may expect in England II. His Majesty tells his people that the perfect Injoyment of their Property has never been in any Case invaded by him since his coming to the Crown This is indeed matter of great Incouragement to all good Subjects for it lets them see that such Invasions as have been made on Property have been done without his Majesties knowledge so that no doubt the continuing to levy the Customes and the Additional Excise which had been granted only during the late King's Life before the Parliament could meet to renew the Grant was done without his Majesties knowledge the many Violences committed not only by Soldiers but Officers in all the parts of England which are severe Invasions on Property have been all without his Majesties knowledge and since the first Branch of Property is the Right that a man has to his Life the strange Essay of Mahometan Government that was shewed at Taunton and the no less strange proceedings of the present Lord Chancellour in his Circuit after the Rebellion which are very justly called his Campagne for it was an open Act of Hostility to all Law and for which and other Services of the like nature it is believed he has had the reward of the great Seal and the Executions of those who have left their Colours which being founded on no Law are no other than so many murders all these I say are as we are sure Invasions on Property but since the King tells us that no such Invasions have been made since he came to the Crown we must conclude that all these things have fallen out without his privity And if a standing Army in time of Peace has been ever lookt on by this Nation as an Attempt upon the whole Property of the Nation in gross one must conclude that even this is done without his Majesties knowledge III. His Majesty expresses his Charity for us in a kind wish that we were all Members of the Catholick Church in return to which we offer up daily our most earnest Prayers for him that he may become a Member of the truly Catholick Church for Wishes and Prayers do no hurt on no side but his Majesty adds that it has ever been his Opinion that Conscience ought not to be constrain'd nor people forced in matters of meer Religion We are very happy if this continues to be always his sense but we are sure in this he is no Obedient Member of that which he means by the Catholick Church for it has over and over again decreed the Extirpation of Hereticks It encourages Princes to it by the Offer of the pardon of their Sins it threatens them to it by denouncing to them not only the Judgments of God but that which is more sensible the loss of their Dominions
emitted his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience there were Commissions of Reprisal prepared and ready to be granted to the English East-India Company against the Hollanders but which were suppressed upon the Court 's finding that they whom the suspending the Execution of so many Laws and the granting such Liberties Rights and Immunities to the Papists had disgusted and provoked were far more numerous and their resentments more to be apprehended than they were whose murmurings and discontents they had silenced and allay'd by the liberty that was granted Now as it will be at this juncture when the Protestant Interest is so low in the World and the Reformed Religion in so great danger of being Destroyed a most wicked as well as an imprudent Act to contribute help and aid to the Subjugating a People that are the chief Protectors of the Protestant Religion that are left and almost the only Asserters of the Rights and Liberties of Mankind so it may fill the Addressers with confusion and shame that they should have not only justified an Act of His Majesty's that is plainly designed to such a mischievous End but that they should by the Promises and Vows that they have made Him have emboldned His Majesty to continue his purposes and resolutions of a War against the Dutch Which as it must be funestous and fatal to the Protestant Cause in case he should prosper and succeed so howsoever it should issue yet the Addressers who have done what in them lyes to give encouragement unto it will be held betrayers of the Protestant Religion both abroad and at home and judged guilty of all the Blood of those of the same Faith with them that shall be shed in this Quarrel That Liberty ought to be allowed to men in matters of Religion is no Plea whereby the King 's giving it in an illegal and Arbitrary manner can be maintained and justified Since ever I was capable of exercising any distinct and coherent acts of Reason I have been always of that mind that none ought to be persecuted for their Consciences towards God in matters of Faith and Worship Nor is it one of those things that lye under the power of the Sovereign and Legislative Authority to grant or not to grant but it is a Right setled upon Mankind antecedent to all Civil Constitutions and Humane Laws having its foundation in the Law of Nature which no Prince or State can legitimately violate and Infringe The Magistrate as a Civil Officer can pretend or claim no Power over a People but what he either derives from the Divine Charter wherein God the Supreme Institutor of Magistracy has chalk'd out the Duty of Rulers in general or what the People upon the first and original Stipulation are supposed to have given him in order to the Protection Peace and Prosperity of the Society But as it does no where appear that God hath given any such Power to Governors seeing all the Revelations in the Scripture as well as all the Dictates of Nature speak a contrary Language so neither can the People upon their chusing such a one to be their Ruler be imagined to transfer and vest such a Power in him forasmuch as they cannot divest themselves of a Power no more than of a Right of believing things as they arrive with a Credibility to their several and respective Understandings As it is in no Man's Power to believe as he will but only as he sees cause so it is the most irrational Imagination in the World to think they should transfer a Right to him whom they have chosen to govern them of punishing them for what it is not in their power to help Nor can any thing be plainer than that God has reserved the Empire over Conscience to himself and that he hath circumscribed the Power of all Humane Governors to things of a civil and inferior Nature And had God convey'd a Right unto Magistrates of commanding Men to be of this or that Religion and that because they are so and will have others to be of their mind it would follow that the People may conform to whatsoever they require tho by all the Lights of Sense Reason and Revelation they are convinced of the Falshood of it Seeing whatsoever the Sovereign rightfully Commands the Subjects may lawfully obey But tho the persecuting People for Matters of mere Religion be repugnant to the Light of Nature inconsistent with the Fundamental Maxims of Reason directly contrary to the Temper and Genious as well as to the Rules of the Gospel and not only against the Safety and Interest of Civil Societies but of a Tendency to fill them with Confusion and to arm Subjects to the cutting of one anothers Throats yet Governors may both deny Liberty to those whose Principles oblige them to destroy those that are not of their mind and may in some measure Regulate the Liberty which they vouchsafe to others whose Opinions tho they do not think dangerous to the Peace of the Community yet through judging them Erroneous and False they conceive them dangerous to the Souls of Men. As there is a vast difference betwixt Tolerating a Religion and approving the Religion that is Tolerated so what a Government doth not approve but barely permits and suffers may be brought under Restrictions as to time place and number of those professing it that shall assemble in one Meeting which it were an Undecency to extend to those of the justified and established way Now whatsoever Restrictions or Regulations are enacted and ordained by the Legislative Authority in reference to Religions or Religious Assemblies they are not to be stop'd disabled or suspended but by the same Authority that enacted and ordained them The King says very truly That Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People forced in matters of mere Religion But it does not from thence follow unless by the Logick of Whitehall that without the concurrence of a Parliament he should suspend and dispense with the Laws and by a pretended Prerogative relieve any from what they are Obnoxious unto by the Statutes of the Realm His saying that the forcing People in matters of Religion spoils Trade depopulates Countries discourageth Strangers and answers not the End of bringing all to an Uniformity for which it is employ'd would do well in a Speech to the Houses of Parliament to perswade them to Repeal some certain Laws or might do well to determine his Majesty to assent to such Bills as a Parliament may prepare and offer for relieving Persons in matters of Conscience but does not serve for what it is alledged nor can it warrant his suspending the Laws by his single Authority And by the way I know when these very Arguments were not only despised by his Majesty and rediculed by those who took their Cue from Court and had Wit to do it as by the present Bishop of Oxford in a very ill-natur'd Book called Ecclesiastical Polity but when the daring to have mentioned them would
Not by the Law of the Land Answ Yes By the Law of the Land a Petty Constables word would justifie Resistance better then the Kings Commission could justifie the illegal Attempt But suppose there were no Person that had the least Authority and that the resistance could not be within the prescribed Form of government yet because the force is an unauthoritative force and because there is greater necessity of the End of the government than of the Form Men may by the Law of Nature and the Law of Reason proceed to the End not without all Form but without the Political Form for those proceedings that are according to Reason are not simply under no Law but under a more extensive Law and that Law justifies resistance even of Superiors when there is no other way of defence left the people If the Case will admit of Intreaties or sober Counsels or legal Appeals they are to be used but if there be no room for these or if they take no place but illegal force be used that force may nay must be resisted or evil is consented to For he that will not serve the publick by that means when there is no other does actually consent to the ruine of it He that has his house on fire and will not stir to quench the flames though he be able is willing sure it should be burnt The Rules of prudence indeed are to be observed for if there be no probability that resistance will prevent the Evil the attempt is Folly and if resistance will do more harm than good it is inserviceable and if there be any other means effectual it is unreasonable for it ought to be the last refuge and then if the Cause be good Necessity justifies proceeding to the End Not by illegal Means but by suspending the Political Form and appealing to the Reason of Mankind and introducing the Law of Nature And this is no more than when Judgment at Common-Law is reversed in Chancery the Form of the Law gives place to Equity and sound Reason Obj. 6. But is it Rebellion Answ I Answer Rebellion is resisting the just Power of the Government and if so then it is no Rebellion to resist the unjust and usurped Power for then it would be Rebellion to resist Rebellion and there could be no such thing as a just defence against the exorbitant Power of Princes and then the King might Commission a Captain or a Collonel to role up and down in the Country and Plunder and it would be Rebellion in the Posse Cum. at least in any private Family to resist them And a private Commission to cut our Throats would tye our hands till the business were done But the resisting such Force as has neither Moral nor political power is no more Rebellion than to fight against a Wild Beast that came with Strength but no Authority to devour them The Papists indeed have taken up Arms without and against the just power of this Land not only against the Form of Law but to the overthrow of the Laws and Fundamental Rights of this Government directly against the Letter the Power and the End of the Law which is as inslaving to the Subjects as an usurping Conquest and it is no more Rebellion to resist them than Wat Tyler or Jack Cade They are Rebels who Arm against the government not they that defend it by Arms Obj. 7. But this is to usurp the Power of the Sword which by the Frame of the Government is wholly in the Kings Hand Answ The Political Power of the Sword indeed is in the King but that does not devest the Subject of all defence by Arms but only of such defence as is against or inconsistent with the Political Power If force be offered that wants Political Power whoever does it does it but in the Nature of a private Person and private Persons may resist such The Right of Self-defence is a precedent Right to all Policy and every Man has so much of it still as is not given up unto the Political Power he lives under They therefore that have given themselves up to be governed by Law only have Right to defend themselves not only against the private Assailant which is allowed in all Governments but also against illegal Force And this Resistance is no Usurpation upon the Magistrates Power because it is not an Act of Civil Authority but of Natural Right And if thousands joyn in the Attempt they are all Voluntiers a Multitude but no body Corporate and such as challenge no Authority over those they resist but deny Subjection to such unauthoritative Force For such Force wanting Political Power has no Power but Strength and Strength authorizes none to injure but Natural Right authorizes every one to defend himself so that in this case the Resister has a moral Power or Warrant but the illegal Invader none at all Obj. 8. But the Resisters ought not to do an unlawful Act to suppress such illegal Force Answ I Answer That Act is not simply Unlawful that wants Political Power the Law is made for the publick Good as the End and therefore if the prescribed means be not sufficient for the End the Law permits that other reasonable means be used otherwise People might dwell upon the Shadow till they 've lost the Substance The Posse Com. ought not by the prescribed form of Law to go into another County but if the other Country at that time had no Sheriff whereby the power of that County could not be raised to defend it self or if there were Ships in the Borders of the next County to which the Plunderers might escape if they were not hotly pursued I question not but the Posse Com. might do a commendable Act to pursue them and take them in the next County The Law was made for the publick Good and not the Publick Good for the Law and therefore when the Law cannot answer its own End or prescribes ineffectual Means any just and honest Means may be used and this is not destructive of the Law but suppletory not a violating the Form prescribed but an improving it And though a Man may be called to account for doing a Good Act in such a manner I suppose it is but to know the Truth of the Matter and to preserve the Reverence of the Laws for he is already cleared in his own Conscience and in the Breasts of all Good Men and a Pardon in that case does but declare it is so and ought of Right not of Grace to be granted For it is not necessary in respect of any Crime but in respect of some defect in the Law which had not made sufficient provision for the Publick Good Object 9. But it is against true Allegiance and an Oath must be kept though it be to our own hurt Answ True Allegiance must be proportioned to the Frame of the Government and the end of that Frame Therefore if the Frame be to restrain Arbitrary Power the Subject cannot
as long as the King is safe and his just Power and Prerogatives the Government is in no danger and there is not the least Colour imaginable that those that have surrendered their Offices and Honours the Court and the King's Favour for preserving the Government and are now ready to hazard their Lives in defence of it will ever alter it No their design is to preserve it a greater Evidence of which they could not give at present than to petition for a Free Parliament Obj. 17. But this casts dirt upon the Frame of the Government leaving room for perpetual quarrelling Answ 1. Neither this nor any other Government that I know of affords absolute means of Peace and Preservation The Government is effectual enough so far as it reaches but it is not extensive enough If the Monarch were Arbitrary then no Cause could introduce Resistance the Nation might be at Peace but the Subjects could not be safe and Liberty and Property would be lost Therefore if Safety Liberty and Property be worth the preserving they must be defended when wicked Men would wrest them from us The Constitution of this Government is such That if the King and Parliament or the King and the Subjects differ about Fundamental Rights they have no way to reconcile the Difference but by their own Consent If the King without the Parliament could determine the Difference he would be Arbitrary and if the People or the Parliament could determine it without him they would be Supream and then it could be no Monarchy and if the Judges had the determining Power they would get the Supremacy from both and if a Foreigner were to decide the Matter he would seek his own Advantage so that they must either condescend for Peace sake to one anothers Proposals so as not to destroy the Government or they must suffer the Grievance and let the Quarrel fall for a time till the injurious can be worn to a compliance or they must fight it out for that is their going to Law the Souldiers are their Jury-men and Victory is their Verdict For the Question is not about breach of Government but whether that be the Government or no and seeing this Cause transcends the executive Part of the Government it cannot be decided by Legal Progress but by Law-makers and if they cannot agree Men are at liberty to join with that side they judg in the right Reason and Conscience must be their Guide the Law cannot and they that proceed on this ground are their own Warrants on either side for neither have a Legal Power to determine the other Therefore the Power of Judging is neither Authoritative nor Civil and so argues no Superiority in those that judg but only a Power residing in reasonable Creatures or judging of their own Act of which they never were devested by any lawful Authority and therefore may lawfully use upon such Occasions and though the Government does not Warrant a Civil War in such a case yet the End and Reason of this Government does For it being fram'd to prevent the exorbitant Power of the Prince for the publick Good he that fights for the publick Good against an Usurped Power or an Arbitrary Invader of the Governments Rights is justified by the design and intendment of the Frame and consequently by the Equity of the Government though not by any prescribed Form For seeing many things are morally honest and profitable that are not reduced into positive Laws Men cannot proceed to those things if at any time they become necessary by prescribing Forms of Law because they have none and so in this case the Question being not about Breach of Law but what is Law And the Law not able to satisfy both King and People each claiming contrary Rights from the same Laws the Decision of this Case though it be very good and profitable for this Nation yet has no prescribed form of Law to direct us to and therefore both King and People are to proceed according to moral Honesty to the end of the Government that is the publick Good The Conclusion of all which is That seeing resisting of Illegal and Arbitrary Forces in defence of the Laws and Publick Interest of the Land is not against the Scriptures and consequently no Sin nor against moral Honesty and consequently no Crime not against Law but Law-breakers not against true Allegiance or any Prerogative of the Crown no Rebellion no Usurpation of the Sword nor Criminal Disobedience and not incommodious or unsafe for the Publick in respect of the impendant Injuries and Hazards it removes nor inconsistent with the Frame of Government which cannot otherwise decide an obstinate Difference betwixt King and People I cannot but conclude it is a very worthy and virtuous Act to be in Arms for defence of the Laws the King 's just Rights and the Publick Good and consequently that those Gentlemen who are in Arms for defence of our Laws Liberties and Lives against Illegal Forces Arbitrary Commands and Usurped Powers are in a virtuous Post For if the Subjects Right might not be defended by this means it would be all lost it being all one in these days to have no Right and to have no sufficient means to defend it The Doctrine of Non-resistance plainly puts all we have into an ill King's hands and the good Ones will scarce part with what they are apt to love so dearly and we parted with so freely should we therefore preach this Doctrine to our Princes and tell them that they might take what we have without danger or opposition we should teach them to try our Patience if all must be referr'd to their Consciences they will soon without the help of a Jesuit find case enough and cause enough to secure that and leave the examination of them to the latter Day hatred of our Persons love of our Estates disgust at our Words or Actions or dislike of our Religion will soon judg us unworthy of our Liberty and Property as well as it has already done of our Offices Honours and Preferments Passion and Scorn Pride and Ambition Covetousness and Prodigality would all prey upon what we had with a quiet though not with a good Conscience but especially if the King were poor and necessitous either by wilful Profuseness or Negligence for Nature would even tell him in such a Case That we had all better want than he and then farewel Property the worst you could do him was but to pet and cry a bit and perhaps that might become a Pleasure to him too and then you had nothing to rest on but that God would give you the Kingdom of Heaven for beggering your selves impoverishing the Church and giving what you had to the Devil's Service an ill Ground for such costly Hopes to stand upon 2. This Doctrine renders Government prejudicial to the greatest part of Mankind depriving them of all just Defence For the illegal Force bars them of legal Defence and the Doctrine of Non-resistance