Praerogativas Ejusdem Et quod non intendo per hujusmodi juramentum vel juramenta quovis modo me obligare qui minus libere loqui consulere aut consentire valeam in omnibus singulis Reformationem Religionis Christianae Gubernationem Ecclesiae Anglicanae Praerogativam Coronae ejusdem Reipublicae vel commoditatem earundem quoquo modo concernentibus ea ubique exequi reformare quae mihi in Ecclesia Anglicana reformanda videbuntur Et secundum hanc interpretationem intellectum hunc non aliter nequa alia modo dictum juramentum me praestiturum protestor profiteor That is to say In the name of God Amen Before you c. It neither is nor shall be my will or meaning by this kind of Oath or Oaths and however the words of themselves shall seem to sound or signify to bind up my self by vertue hereof to say do or endeavour any thing which shall really be or appear to be against the Law of God or against our most Illustrious King of England or against his Laws and Prerogatives And that I mean not by this my Oath or Oaths any ways to bind up my self from speaking consulting and consenting freely in all and every thing in any sort concerning the Reformation of the Christian Religion the Government of the Church of England and the Prerogative of the Crown of the Commonwealth thereof or their advantage and from executing and reforming such things as I shall think need to be reformed in the Church of England And according to this Explanation and sense and not otherwise nor in any other manner do I protest and profess that I am to take and perform this Oath Nor did that excellent Person says Mr. Fuller smother this privately in a corner but publickly interposed it three several times once in the Charter-house before authentick Witnesses again upon his bended knees before the high Altar in view and hearing of many People and Bishops beholding him when he was consecrated and the third time when he received the Pall in the same place Now would it not be very strange if the like liberty should not be allowed to the Earl under His Majesty in reference to the Test which Henry the VIIIth a Prince that stood as much on his Prerogative as ever any did vouchsafe to this Thomas Cranmer who as another Historian observes acted fairly and above-board But there wanted then the high and excellent Designs of the great Ministers the rare fidelity of Councellors sound Religion and tender piety of Bishops solid Law and Learning of Advocates incorruptible Integrity of Judges and upright honesty of Assizers that now we have to get Archbishop Cranmer accused and condemned for Leasing-making depraving Laws Perjury and Treason to which Accusation his Explanation was certainly no less obnoxious than the Earl's But I hasten to the fourth and last Head of the Earl's Additional Defences viz. The removing certain groundless Pretences alledged by the Advocate for aggravating the Earl's Offence As 1. That the Earl being a Peer and Member of Parliament should have known the sense of the Parliament and that neither the Scruples of the Clergy nor the Council's Proclamation designed for meer Ignorants could any way excuse the Earl for offering such an Explanation But first the Advocate might have remembred that in another Passage he taxes the Earl as having debated in Parliament against the Test whereby it is easie to gather that the Earl having been in the matter of the Test a dissenter this quality doth rather justify than aggravate the Earl's Scrupling 2dly If the Proclamation was designed for the meer Ignorants of the Clergy as the Advocate calls them who knew nothing of what had past in Parliament an Explanation was far more necessary for the Earl who knows so little of what the Advocate alledges to have past in Parliament viz. That the Confession of Faith was not to be sworn to as a part of the Test that of necessity as I think he must know the contrary Inasmuch as first this is obvious from the express tenor of the Test which binds to own and profess the true Protestant Religion contained in the Confession of Faith and to believe the same to be agreeable to the Word of God as also to adhere thereto and never to consent to any change contrary to or inconsistent with the said Protestant Religion and Confession of Faith Which to common sense appears as plain and evident as can be contrived or desired But 2dly It is very well known that it was expresly endeavoured and carried in Parliament that the Confession of Faith should be a part of the Test and Oath For the Confession of Faith being designed to be sworn to by an Act for securing the Protestant Religion which you have heard was prepared in the Articles but afterwards thrown out when this Act for the Test was brought into the Parliament some days after by the Bishop of Edinburgh and others the Confession was designedly left out of it But it being again debated that the bare naming of the Protestant Religion without condescending on a Standard for it was not sufficient the Confession of Faith was of new added And after the affirmative Clause for owning it and adhering to it was insert upon a new motion the negative never to consent to any alteration contrary to or inconsistent with the said Protestant Religion and Confession of Faith was also subjoined But not without a new debate and opposition made against the words And Confession of Faith by the Bishop of Edinburgh until at length he also yielded All which it is hoped was done for some purpose And if at that time any had doubted of the thing he had certainly been judged most ridiculous For it was by that addition concluded by all That the Confession was to be sworn And further it appears plainly by the Bishop of Edinburgh his Vindication that when he wrote it he believed the Confession was to be sworn to for he takes pains to justify it though calumniously enough alledging That it was hastily compiled in the short space of four days by some Barons and Ministers in the infancy of our Reformation Where by the by you see that he makes no reckoning of what the Act of Parliament to which the Test refers expresly bears viz. That that second Ratification 1567. which we only have recorded was no less then seven years after this Confession was first exhibited and approven Anno 1560. But moreover he tells us That the Doctors of Aberdeen who refused the Covenant were yet willing not only to subscribe but to swear this Confession of Faith Which again to answer the Bishops Critick of Four days was more than 70. years after it was universally received It 's true that when the Bishop finds himself straitned how to answer Objections he is forced to make use of the new Gloss I shall not call it of Orleans whereby the Protestant Religion is made to be
Opportunity is precious and very slippery and if they let the present Occasion pass by they can hardly ever hope that it will be possible for them to recover it That their Fathers and Grand-fathers would have thought themselves in Heaven to have had such an Offer as this is in any of the four last Reigns and therefore that they had better be contented with Half a Loaf than no Bread I mean it will be their VVisdom to embrace this Golden Occasion of putting themselves on a Level with all other English Men at least as to their private Capacity and to disarm once for all the severity of those Laws which if ever they should come to be in good earnest executed by a Protestant Successor will make England too hot for them And therefore I should particularly advise those among them who have the Honour to approach his Majesty to use their Credit to prevail with him to make this so necessary a step in Favour of the Nation since the Successors have advanced two Thirds of the way for effecting so good and pious a VVork Then and not till then the R. C's may think themselves secured and his Majesty may hope to be great by translating Fear and Anger from the Breasts of his Subjects to the Hearts of his Own and the Nations Enemies But if an evil Genius which seems to have hovered over us now a long time will have it otherwise if I were a R. C. I could meddle no more but live quiet at home and caress my Protestant Neighbours and in so doing I should think my self better secured against the Resentments of the Nation than by all the Forces Forts Leagues Garranties and even Men Children that His Majesty may hope to leave behind him As for the Protestant Dissenters I am confident the Body of them will continue to behave themselves like Men who to their great Honour have ever preferred the Love of their Country and Religion to all Dangers and Favours whatsoever but there are both weak and interested Men among all great Numbers I would have them consider how much the state of things is altered upon the coming out of this Letter for if hitherto they have been too forward in giving Ear to Proposals on this Mistake that they could never have such a favorable Juncture for getting the Laws against them repealed I hope now they are undeceived since the Successors have pawn'd their Faith and Honour for it which I take to be a better security as Matters go at present than the so much talked of Magna Charta for Liberty of Conscience would be tho got in a legal way for our Judges have declared That Princes can dispense with the Obligation of Laws but they have not yet given their Opinion that they can dispense with the Honour of their Word nor have their Highnesses any Confessor to supply such an Omission However it is not to be charged on their Highnesses if such a Magna Charta be not at present given them provided the Test be let alone but I fear the Roman Catholicks Zeal will have all or nothing and the Test too must be repealed by wheedling the Dissenters to joyn with willing Sheriffs in violating the Rights of Elections which are the Root of the Liberties of England prudent way of recommending their Religion to all true English Men. But if any of the Dissenters be so destitute of Sense and Honesty as to prefer a Magna Charta so obtained Void and Null in it self to their own Honour and Conscience to the Love and Liberties of their Countrey to the present Kindness of all good Men and their Countenance at another time and above all to the Favour and Word of the Successors who have now so generously declared themselves for them We may pronounce that they are Men abandoned to a reprobate Sence who will justly deserve Infamy and the hatred of the Nation at present and its Resentments hereafter Is it possible that any Dissenter who either deserves or loves the Reputation of an honest Man can be prevailed with by any pretences of Insinuations how plausible soever to make so odious and pernicious a Bargain as that of buying a precarious pretended Liberty of Conscience at the price of the Civil Liberties of their Country and at the price of removing that which under God is the most effectual Bar to keep us from the Dominion of a Religion that would as soon as it could force us to abandon our own or reduce us to the miserable Condition of those of our Neighbours who are glad to forsake all they have in the World that they may have their Souls and Lives for a Prey As for the Church of England their Clergy have of late opposed themselves to Popery with so much Learning Vigor Danger and Success that I think all honest Dissenters will lay down their Resentments against them and look on that Church as the present Bulwark and Honour of the Protestant Religion I wish those high Men among them who have so long appropriated to themselves the Name and Authority of the Church of England and have been made Instruments to bring about Designs of which their present Behaviour convinces me they were ignorant as I suppose many of the Dissenters are whose turn it is now to be the Tools I say I wish such Men would consider to what a pass they have brought Matters by their Violences or rather the Violences of these whose Property they were and at length be wise They cannot but be sensible of the Advantages they receive by this Letter I suppose they apprehend I am sure they ought to do it that the Ruine of their Church is resolv'd onâ— But if the Dissenters upon this Letter withdraw themselves the R. C's have neither Hearts to keep firm to such a Resolution nor Hands to execute it Since therefore they themselves have unhappily brought their Church into such Precepices by provoking the Dissenters it is in a particular manner their Duty as well as their Interest to endeavour to soften them by assisting the Letter and promoting the Design of it But if the old Leaven still remain and they continue to argue as formerly if the Surplice be parted with the Church of England is lost if the Penal Laws be repealed the Test wâ—â— follow and comfort themselves with this most Christian Reflection that the R. Câ—â— will 〈◊〉 accept of what is offered them such Men deserve all the Misery that is preparing for them and will perish without Pity and give thinking Men occasion to remember the Proveâ—â— But a Fool or a Zealot in a Mortar yet his Foolishness will not depart from him But the Disseâ—â—â—â— ought not to be much concerned at this they have their own Bigots and the Church â—â—â—land theirs there will be Tools whilst there are Workmen This is a time for Wisdom to be justified of her Children when honest Men 〈…〉 off minding the lesser Interests of this or that particular Church and
is a vast Liberality indeed but still of other folks Goods It would become them far better to restore back Dunkirk to England which they cheated us of by Surprize or the Town of Callis which they have dismembred from our ancient Dominion They take from us what is our own already and present us with nothing but what is not in their power to give because they cannot bestow either the Title or the Possession of what they do offer in this Kind upon us which if we will have we must gain it by the Point of the Sword And this Train which they do shew us is of the same nature with that sort of Temptations with which the Devil tempted our Saviour from the top of the Pinnacle But do not you discover that this is a subtil Artifice to imbroil us again in a now War with the States of the United Provinces who have the Interest to defend these two Places as much as if either Amsterdam or Flushing were so designed upon And without an absolute Naval Victory we can never hope to conquer them and such a Conquest at Sea too as shall put the Hollanders out of all manner of possibility to afford any Succours in this Case This is a very hard bone which France doth cast in for us to gnaw whil'st they eat all the Marrow of it In fine when the Arms of France joyned to our Forces shall have put us possession of these two Places yet they 'll be totally unuseful to England when France is possessed of all the rest Because thus the French will shut us quite out of the whole Traffick of the Low Countreys and will be always in a Condition to drive the English away from thence unless we do resolve continually to keep a Fleet at Sea for the conserving of them If this Design be hollow and visionary it is not less shameful then airy and full of Injustice We have no manner of Pretention on the Monarchy of Spain nor is it our Genius to whet our Spirits to form Castles in the Clouds of Chimerical Rights What Glory can it be to our Arms to help to oppress a King in Minority of six years old by surprize only because we find him now to be rudely attacqued and unprovided on a frivolous Pretext immediately after the French had given the Queen his Mother and his principal Ministers of State at Madrid such solemn assurances to the contrary as well as at Paris touching the inviolable continuation of a good Peace and a sincere Friendship The manner which Spain hath held and acted with us newly in relation to England when we were assaulted by three powerful Enemies at one time ought to oblige us at least to be deaf to the artificial Allurements of France For although the French have tried by all the ways imaginable and with Offers incomparably more advantagious than those which they do make to us at present to the end that so they might have gained the Forces of Spain to unite with them to our inevitable Oppression yet was it never in their Power to shake the unalterable Amity which the Spanish Nation have for us by a kind of natural Sympathy which one knows not how better to express than by the Immutability of it whether we do oblige or disoblige them Would it not then be an Ingratitude totally inconsistent with the Honour and the Hospitality of the English Temper so soon to forget this Kindness since at the same instant that Spain was the deepliest engaged against Portugal they did notwithstanding openly oppose the Designs of France which seemed to the prejudice of England by refusing them in contemplation of us firmly and with great Resolution Passage for those Troops of theirs which they sent to ruine the Bishop of Munster our Ally and Confederate then We cannot complain of any Injury or Attempt wherein the Spaniards have tampered against England No League nor ancient Treaty doth oblige us to second the Designs of France and we cannot conclude new Aliances with the French to this purpose without directly contravening that Treaty which we have lately ratified with Spain Let us see then what the Herald is to say to the Spaniards that shall be sent to denounce War unto them on this Occasion from England or with what Reasons we shall be able to fill a Manifesto which we would offer to the Publick whereby to justifie the Causes of this Rupture Wherefore I leave the Care my Lord to you being that you seem to be the Author of this Counsel to found it well in the point of Justice But pray see that you perform it better and with more grace than the Writer of the Queen of France's Prepensions hath done I say farther yet That this Design is both prejudicial and destructive and that it carries along with it most pernicious Consequences as well in the present time as the time to come For from the very moment that we do break with Spain our Commerce will cease with the Effects of all those great Advantages which the Spaniards have * By the Treaty last ratified at Madrid by the Earl of Sandwich His Majesty's Embassadour there newly granted unto us and the Merchants of this Realm who trade there will justly be confiscated since all the Profit that we draw from thence must on these terms infallibly redound in favour of the Hollanders whilest our Arms do busie the Spaniards in the Low Countries and the French as they do their utmost against Spain at the same instant will seize their principal Ports into their Power and thus become absolute Masters of the Commerce by putting themselves into a Posture to ereâ—â—â— Doâ—â—â—nion over th◠〈◊〉 which we can never afterwards be able to resist Not above three Years agâ— France was hardly able to set forth twenty Ships that is to say Men of War 〈◊〉 â—ow they have sixty large Vessels ready furnished and well armed and do apply all their Industry and Pains in every part to augment the number Could the Ghost of Queen Elizabeth return back into the World again she would justly reproach us who are the Ministers of State here in England for having abandoned her good Maxims by tamely suffering before our Eyes a Maâ—itim Power to increase which she so diligently kept down throughout the whole Course of her Reign Whereas you are so far from opposing the Growth of this Power that you rather seem to desire England should facilitate the ways to make it grow the faster and render it yet more formidable than it is by the Acquisition of the Sea Ports which in conclusion must infallibly bring France to be Mistress of the Commerce of the Indies All the World knows the vast quantity of Money and Arms which the French have accumulated to that end alone out of the richest Purses of that Kingdom I agree to what hath been said before very prudently in this Conference that our Power and Greatness doth principally consist in the matter of
the Face to turn them again upon you after they have made all this Noise for Liberty And the Church of England you may be assured will not any more trouble you but when a Protestand Prince shall come will joyn in the Healing of all our Breaches by removing all things out of the way which have long hindred that blessed Work They cannot meet together in a Body to give you this Assurance how should they without the Kings Authority so to do but every particular Person that I have discoursed withal which are not a few and you your selves would do well to ask them when you meet them profess that they see an absolute Necessity of making an end of these Differences that have almost undone us and will no longer contend to bring all Men to one Vniformity but promote an Vniform Liberty Do not imagine I intend to give meer Words I meâ—n honestly such a regular Liberty as will be the Beauty and Honour not the Blot and Discredit of our Religion To such a Temper the Archbishop of Canterbury with several other Bishops of his Province and their Clergy have openly declared they are willing to come And the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England have never been know to act deceitfully Our Religion will not at any time allow them to equivecate nor to give good VVords without a Meaning much less at such a time as this when our Religion is in great danger and we have nothing to trust unto but Gods Protection of sincere Persons Let Integrity and Vprightness preserve us is their constant Prayer They can hope for no Help from Heaven if they should prevaricate with Men. God they know would desert them if they should go about to delude their Brethren And they are not so void of common Sense as to adventure to incur his most high Displeasure when they have nothing to rely upon but his Favour In short Trust to those who own you for their Brethren as you do them for though they have been angry Brethren yet there is hope of Reconciliation between such near Relations But put no Confidence in those who not only utterly disown any such Relation to you but have ever treated you with an implacable Hatred as their most mortal Enemies unto whom it is impossible they should be reconciled Prov. 12.19 20. The Lips of Truth shall be established for ever but a lying tongue is but for a mâ—ment Lying Lips are an Abomination to the Lord but they that deal truly are his Delight Abby and other Church-Lands not yet assured to such Possessors as are Roman Catholicks Dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of that Religion SInce it is universally agreed on that so great a Matter as the total Alienation of all the Abby-Lands c. in England can never be made legal and valid and such as will satisfie the reasonable Doubts and Scruples of a religious and conscientions Person except it be confirm'd by the Supreme Authority in this Church t is evident that the Protestants who assert the Church of England to be Autokephalos and such as allows of no Foreign Jurisdiction or Appeals having had these Lands confirmed to them by the King as Head of the Chuech the Convocation as the Church Representative and by the King and Parliament as the Supreme Legislative Power in this Realm have these Alienations made as valid to them as any Power on Earth can make them but the Members of the Church of Rome who maintain a Foreign and Supreme Jurisdiction either in a General Council or in the Bishop of Rome or both together cannot have these Alienations confirm'd to them without the Consent of one or both of these Superior Jurisdictions If therefore I shall make it appear that these Alienations in England were never confirm'd by either I do not see how any Roman Catholick in England can without Sacriledge retain them and his Religion together As to the first of these since there hath been no Council from the first Alienation of Abby-Lands in England to this Day that pretends to be general but that of Trent we need only look into that for the Satisfaction of such Roman Catholicke as esteem a General Council above the Bishop of Rome And I am sure that that Council is so far from confirming these Abby-Lands to the present Possessors that it expresly denounceth them accursed that detain them Sess 22. Decret de Ref. Cap. 11. Si quem c. If Covetousness the Root of all Evil shall so far possess any Person whatsoever whether of the Clergy or Laity though he be an Emperor or a King as that by Force Fear or Fraud or any Art or Colour whatsoever he presume to convert to his own Use and usurp the Jurisdiction Goods Estates Fruits Profits or Emoluments whatever of any Church or any Benefice Secular or Regular Hospital or Religious House or shall hinder that the Profits of the said Houses be not received by those to whom they do of right belong let him lie under an Anathema till the said Jurisdiction Goods Estates Rents and Prosits which he hath possessed and invaded or which have come to him any manner of way be restored to the Church and after that have Absolution from the Bishop of Rome So great a Terror did this strike into the English Papists that were Possessors of Church-Lands against whom this Anathema seems particularly directed that many of the zealous Papists began to think of Restitution and Sir William Peters notwithstanding his private Bull of Absolution from Pope Juâ—â—us the Fourth was so much startled at it as that the very next Year he endowed eight new Fellowships in Exeter-Colledge in Oxford Again the same Council Sess 25. Decret de Râ—f c. 2 â— Cupiens Sancta Synodus c. Decreeth and commandeth that all the Holy Ca 〈◊〉 and General Councils and Apostolick Sanctions in Favour of Ecclesiastical Persons and the Liberties of the Church and against those that violate them be exactly observed by eveâ—y 〈◊〉 and doth farther admonish the Emperor Kings Princes and all Persons of what Estate soever that they would observe the Rights of the Church as the Commands of God and defend them by their particular Patronage nor suffer them to be invaded by any Lords or Gâ—ntlemen whaâ—soever but severely punish all those who hinder the Liâ—â—wâ—â—ies Immâ—â—ities and Jurildictions of the Church and that they would imitate those excellent Princes who by their Authority and Bounty encreased the Revenues of the Church so far were they from suffering them to be invadâ—â— and in this let every one sedulously perform his part c. And now after so full and express Declaration of the Council of Trent I do not â—â—e how any of those Râ—man Catholicks who esteem a general Council to be the Supreme Authority in the Church and receive the Trent Council as such can any way excuse themselves in point of Conscience from these heavy Curses that are there denounc'd against all those
shift Instruments and to betake themselves to the Nonconformists whose assistance the better to engage they have not only suspended all the Penal Laws to which the Dissenters were liable but have endeavoured to fill ' them with jealousy and apprehension of danger from the Test Acts tho at the same time they know that Nonconformists never either did or could receive prejudice by them Only they are sensible that if they could work up that easie people into such a belief they should thereby not only obtain their concurrence and abettment for the rescinding of those Laws that are at present the only great remaining Fence about our Religion and upon the abrogation whereof nothing could hinder the Papists from getting into a condition to extirpate it but make them a formed and united Body with themselves against the Prince and Princess of Orange who have with so much Wisdom Courage and Integrity declared that they are against the having them repealed And as the Dissenters cannot have so far renounced all regard both to honesty and to a good name as to be fond of being herded with the Papists or thank our Author for it so they must be become void of all sense and understanding if they suffer themselves to be either wheedled or frighted into an opinion of their being subject to receive any dammage by the Tests it being so expresly contrary both to the Terms of those Laws and to their own experience Nor can they be so far abandoned of God nor prove so treacherous to the Nation Posterity and the whole Protestant Interest thro' Europe as to cooperate to the Repeal of them by destroying that great Fence about the Reformed Religion in England and to put the Papists into capacity both of subverting it there and every where else And setting aside a few mercenary fellows among them there is no ground to fear after we have had so many proofs of their zeal for the Protestant Religion and English Liberties in the worst of times and under the greatest Temptations that they should at this season when all others behave themselves with so much Integrity and Courage be accessory to so villanous a thing The ill success which the Court hath met with in the several Towns and City's since the late Regulation of the Corporations sufficiently shews that the Dissenters who were put into Magistracy in hopes by them to have compassed the packing of a Parliament are no less careful of preserving the Test Laws than they of the Church of England Communion were who were displaced to make way for them And to discover the grossness of the abuse which our Author without regard to Truth or Ingenuity endeavours to put upon them as if they were judged by their Highnesses to be incapable of Trusts and Employments or any ways concluded to stand under those restraints by the Test which the Roman Catholicks do there is not one word in Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter whereby they are said to be subject unto them or by which there is any ground administred of fancying they are put into the same rank with the Papists and whereby to fear that they may hereafter come to be treated accordingly But in stead of this they are expresly told that Their Highnesses do both allow and desire the abrogation of all the Penal Laws against Dissenters and the having them freed from the severity of them and that they do not only consent but heartily approve of their having an entire liberty granted them for the full exercise of their Religion without any trouble or hindrance or being left exposed to the least molestation or inconvenience upon that account And to testifie how far the Nonconformists are from being in the least menaced by those Laws it is again Declared that the only reason why their Highnesses refuse to consent to the having them repealed is because that they have no other tendency save to Secure the Reformed Religion from the Designs of the Papists by containing provisions in the vertue of which those only may be kept out of Office who can not testifie that they are of the Reformed and not of the Roman Catholick Religion Which as it is the highest evidence imaginable of their own stedfastness and integrity in the Reformed Religion and of the compassion and love which they equally bear to all who profess it and how careful they will at all times be to have it maintained and supported so it is the putting such a merit upon all Protestants that it should engage their prayers for their happy extation to the Throne and make them ambitious as well as willing and ready to hazard their lives and Fortunes for the securing the Succession unto them if any should be so wicked as to go about to preclude them But I must pay a further attendance upon our Author and accompany him to the fifth particular which I promised to consider namely that according to his own foolish and incoherent way of writing while he pretends to commend and justify the proceeding of His Majesty of Great Brittain he publisheth the villany of the Papal Church and proclaims the dishonour and injustice of diverse Eminent Monarchs and Princes of the Romish Communion His Panegyricks upon the King of England are so many just Satyr's upon the Church of Rome the Monarch of France and the Duke of Savoy c. For if it be becoming a Christian to be of a contrary judgment to those who are for persecuting such as differ from the publick and established Religion and if it be a sentiment worthy of a Royal mind that none ought to be oppressed for their Consciences in Divine Matters what characters of irreligion ignominy wickedness are due unto them who judge it to be meritorious to destroy sincere Christians for no other pretended Crime save that they cannot believe as the Pope and the Church of Rome do Surely our Author must either be extreamly ignorant of the Doctrine of his own Church and of the bloody and barbarous practices pursuant thereunto both at this day and for many ages past or else he must be the most unsincere miscreant that ever writ or at best be guilty of the inconsistency and folly as to continue in the Communion of a Church whose Articles of Faith he condemns as Antichristian and whose practices according to the Terms made necessary for Salvation he abhorreth both as unworthy of Royal Minds and contrary to Christian Piety But tho nothing can render a false man honest or a foolish Man wise yet seeing something may be done towards the curing a person's ignorance if he be teachable or at least to shew his obstinacy and that the fault is in his will not in his Understanding if he will not learn and be convinced I shall therefore both acquaint him a little with the Doctrine of that Church and briefly put him in remembrance how these of the Romish Fellowship have therefore persecuted Christians and still continue so to do only for differing
I shall not take upon me to determine and will only say that as I heartily wish he had not in those Letters afforded them any probable Pretence for proceeding against him so there are Excesses of Loyalty in them to attone for the utmost Indiscretions his words are capable of being wrested unto nor can any thing but Papal Malice and Romish Chicanerie construe and pervert them so far contrary to his Intentions as to make Crimes and much less to make Treasons of them Now as nothing can be of more portentous Omen to British and Irish Protestants than to have a Popish Bigot exalted to Rule over them so through a Concurrence of ill Nature and a deficiency in Intellectuals met in him with this furious Zeal and Bigottry they are the more to expect whatsoever his Power inables him to inflict that is Severe and Dreadful 'T is possible that a Ruler may be possessed with a Fondness and Valuation of Popery as the only Religion wherein Salvation is to be obtained and therefore in his private Judgment and Opinion sentence all to eternal Flames who cannot herd with him in the same Society and yet he may through a great measure of Humanity and from an extraordinary Proportion of Compassion and Meekness woven into his Nature hate the imbrueing his Hands in their Blood or treating those with any Harshness whose supposed Misbelief is their only Crime and that finding them in all other Respects Vertuous Peaceable and Industrious He may leave them to the decretive Sentence of the Sovereign and infallible Judge without disturbing or meddling with them himself Nor is it impossible but that there may be a Prince so far Bigotted in Popery as to have Inclination and Propensity to force all under his Authority to be of his Religion or else to destroy and extirpate them yet through being of that largeness of Understanding and Political Wisdom as to be able to penetrate into the Hazards of attempting it and to foresee the Consequences that may ensue upon it in reference to the Peace and Safety of his Government as well as the Wealth and Power of his Dominions he may come to check and stifle his furious Inclinations and chuse rather to leave his Subjects at quiet than to impoverish weaken and dis-people his Country either by destroying them or by driving them to abandon his Territories in order to find a Shelter and Sanctuary in other places But where as in the King of England a small Measure of Understanding accompanied with a large share of a Morose Fierce and Ill Nature and these attended with Insolency and Pride as they usually are in weak and froward People come to have a Bigottry in such a Religion as Popery superadded to them whose Doctrines and Principles instigate and oblige to Cruelty towards all of other Perswasions there Protestants do find nothing that may incourage to hope for Security and Protection under a Prince of that Temper and Complexion but all that does affect and impress their Minds bids them prepare for Persecution and to look for the utmost Rigors and Severities that Pride Malice brutal Zeal back'd and supported with Force and Power can execute and inflict And how much such a Prince's Religion proves too weak to restrain him from Uncleannesses and other Immoralities by so much the more is he to be dreaded in that he thinks to compound for and expiate Crimes of that Nature by his Cruelty to Hereticks and his offering them up in Sacrifices of Attonement to the Tripple Crown Nor are the Priests either displeased with or careful to disswade Princes from Offences of that kind though they know them to be great Provocations to God and of mischievous Example to Subjects seeing they are Masters of the Art of improving them to the Service of Holy Church and the Advantage of the Catholick Faith For instead of imposing upon those Royal Transgressors the little and Slavish Penances of Pilgrimages Whippings and going Bare-foot they require them to make Satisfactions for those and the like Crimes by the pious and meritorious Acts of Murthering Protestants and of extirpating the Northern Heresie And as one of the French Whores of State is reported to have been a Person that hath principally instigated to all the Cruelties against the Reformed in France so no doubt but as she did it under the Influence and Conduct of her Confessors to compensate for her Adulteries so she advised and perswaded Louis to it upon Motives of the same nature Nor do they who have the guidance of Consciences at White-hall want matter of the same kind to improve and work upon and as there are of the licentious Females that will be glad of attoning for their filthy Pollutions by Acts so agreeable to the Articles of their Religion so there are some who as they have Influence enough upon the King to Counsel Him to the like Methods so they will find Him sufficiently disposed to compound for his Loathsom and Promiscuous Scatterings at a rate so suitable to his Temper as well as to the Doctrines of the Papal Faith If any be deluded into a good Opinion of His Majesty and brought to flatter themselves with Expectations of their being protected in the Profession of the Protestant Religion they may be easily undeceived and prevailed upon to change their Sentiments if they will but consider his Behaviour towards Protestants in the Post wherein he formerly stood and what his carriage was to them while he was fixed in a meaner and more subordinate Station than now he is Though there have been many whose Behaviour in their private Condition would have rendred them thought worthy to Rule if their Actions after their Advancement to governing Power had not confuted the Opinion entertained concerning them yet here have been very few that have approved themselves Just and Merciful after their attaining to Sovereignty whose Carriage in an inferior Station had been to the Damage and general Hurt of Mankind as far as their narrow Power and Interest would extend It ought therefore to lay us under a Conviction what we are to expect from His Majesty on the Throne when we find the whole Thread and Series of his Conduct while a Subject to have been a continued Design against our Religion and an uninterrupted Plot for the Subversion of our Laws and Liberties 'T is sufficiently known how active he always was to keep up and inflame the Differences among Protestants and how he was both a great Promoter of all the severe Laws made against Dissenters and a continual Instigator to the rigorous Execution of them So that his affirming it to have been ever his Judgment that none ought to be oppressed and persecuted for Matters of Religion nor to be hindered in Worshipping God according to their several Perswasions serves only to inform us either with what little Honesty Honor and Conscience He acted in concurring to the making of the foresaid Laws or what small Faith and Credit is now to be
Community 4. It will be some Acknowledgment to the Prince for what he has done for the Nation And it is worthy Observation that before the Theocracy of the Jews ceased the manner of the Divine Designation of their Judges was by God's giving the People some Deliverance by the hand of the Person to whose Government they ought to submit and this even in that time of extraordinary Revelations Thus Othniel Gideon Jephthah Sampson and others were invested by Heaven with the Supreme Authority And though Joshua had an immediate Command from God to succeed Moses and an Anointing to that purpose by the laying on of Moses's Hands Yet the Foundation of the People's Submission to him was laid in Jordan And I challenge the best Historians to give an Instance since that Theocracy ceased of a Designation of any Person to any Government more visibly Divine than that which we now admire If the Hand of Providence miraculously and timely disposing Natural Things in every Circumstance to the best advantage should have any influence upon Mens Minds most certainly we ought not here to be insensible If the Voice of the People be the Voice of God it never spoke louder If a Nation of various Opinions Interests and Factions from a turbulent and fluctuating State falls into a serene and quiet Calm and Mens Minds are strangely united on a sudden it shews from whence they are influenced In a word if the Hand of God is to be seen in Human Affairs and his Voice to be heard upon Earth we cannot any where since the ceasing of Miracles find a clearer and more remarkable Instance than is to be observ'd in the present Revolution If one examines the Posture of Foreign Affairs making way for the Prince's Expedition by some sudden Events and Occurrences which no Human Wisdom or Power could have brought about if one observes that Divine Influence which has directed all his Counsels and crown'd his Undertakings notwithstanding such innumerable Dangers and Difficulties with constant Honour and Success If one considers how happily and wonderfully both Persons and Things are changed in a little time and without Blood it looks like so many marks of God's Favour by which he thinks fit to point him out to us in this extraordinary Conjuncture I will trouble you but with one Consideration more which is That the two things most necessary in this Affair are Unanimity and Dispatch For without both these your Counsels will have little Effect In most things 't is good to be long in resolving but in some 't is fatal not to conclude immediately And presence of Mind is as great a Vertue as Rashness is a Vice For the turns of Fortune are sometimes so quick that if Advantage be not taken in the critical hour 't is for ever lost But I hope your Lordships and all those Gentlemen who compose this August Assembly will proceed with so much Zeal and Harmony that the Result of your present Consultations may be a lasting and grateful Monument to Posterity of your Integrity Courage and Conduct The Late Honourable Convention proved a Legal Parliament I. THE necessity of a Parliament agreed by the Lords and Commons Voting that the Throne is Vacant for there being a Vacancy there follows an immediate necessity of setling the Government especially the Writs being destroyed and the Great Seal carried away put a period to all publick Justice and then there must be a supply by such means as the necessity requires or a failure of Government II. Consider the Antecedents to the calling the Convention that is about three hundred of the Commons which is a majority of the fullest House that can be made above sixty Lords being a greater number than any part divided amounted to at this great Meeting the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of the City of London by application to His then Highness the Prince of Orange desired him to accept of the Administration of Publick Affairs Military and Civil which he was pleased to do to the great satisfaction of all good People and after that His Highness was desired to Issue forth his Circular Letters to the Lords and the like to the Coroners and in their absence to the Clerks of the Peace to Elect Knights Citizens and Burgesses this was more than was done in fifty nine for the calling a Parliament in April 1660. for there the Summons was not real but fictitious i. e. in the names of the Keepers of the Liberties of England a meer Notion set up as a Form there being no such Persons but a meer Ens rationis impossible really to exist so that here was much more done than in 1659 and all really done which was possible to be invented as the Affairs then stood Besides King Charles the 2d. had not abdicated the Kingdom but was willing to return and was at Breda whither they might have sent for Writs and in the mean time have kept their form of Keepers of the Liberties c. But in the present case there was no King in being nor any style or form of Government neither real or notional left so that in all these respects more was done before and at the calling of this Great Convention than for calling that Parliament for so I must call it yet that Parliament made several Acts in all thirty seven as appears by Keebles Statutes and several of them not confirmed I shall instance but in one but it is one which there was occasion to use in every County of England I mean the Act for Confirming and Restoring Ministers being the 17th of that Sessions all the Judges allowed of this as an Act of Parliament tho never confirmed which is a stronger case than that in question for there was only fictitious Summons here a real one III. That without the Consent of any Body of the People this at the Request of a Majority of the Lords more than half the number of the Commons duly chosen in King Ch. the 2d. time besides the great Body of the City of London being at least esteem'd a 5th part of the Kingdom yet after the King's Return he was so well satisfied with the calling of that Parliament that it was Enacted by the King Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament that the Lords and Commons then Sitting at Westmiuster in the present Parliament were the two Houses of Parliament notwithstanding any want of the Kings Writs or Writ of Summons or any defect whatsoever and as if the King had been present at the beginning of the Parliament this I take to be a full Judgment in full Parliament of the case in question and much stronger than the present case is and this Parliament continued till the 29th of December next following and made in all thirty seven Acts as abovementioned The 13 Caroli 2. chap. 7. a full Parliament called by the Kings Writ recites the other of 12 Caroli 2. and that after his Majesties return they were continued till the 29th of December
to publish all his Arbitrary Declarations and in particular one that strikes at their whole Settlement and has ordered Process to be begun against all that disobey'd this illegal Warrant and has treated so great a number of the Bishops as Criminals only for representing to him the Reasons of their not obeying him if likewise the King is not satisfied to profess his own Religion openly though even that is contrary to Law but has sent Ambassadors to Rome and received Nuntio 's from thence which is plainly Treason by Law if likewise many Popish Churches and Chappels have been publickly opened if several Colledges of Jesuits have been set up in divers parts of the Nation and one of the Order has been made a Privy Counsellor and a principal Minister of State and if Papists and even those who turn to that Religion though declared Traitors by Law are brought into all the chief Employments both Military and Civil then it is plain That all the Rights of the Church of England and the whole establishment of the Protestant Religion are struck at and designed to be overturned since all these things as they are notoriously illegal so they evidently demonstrate That the great design of them all is the rooting out of this Pestilent Heresy in their stile I mean the Protestant Religion In the next place If in the whole Course of Justice it is visible that there is a constant practising upon the Judges that they are turned out upon their varying from the Intentions of the Court and if Men of no Reputation nor Abilities are put in their places if an Army is kept up in time of Peace and Men who withdraw from that illegal Service are hanged up as Criminals without any colour of Law which by consequence are so many Murders and if the Souldiery are connived at and encouraged in the most enormous Crimes that so they may be thereby prepared to commit greater ones and from single Rapes and Murders proceed to a rape upon all our Liberties and a destruction of the Nation if I say all these things are true in fact then it is plain that there is such a dissolution of the Government made that there is not any one part of it left found and entire and if all these things are done now it is easy to imagine what may be expected when Arbitrary Power that spares no Man and Popery that spares no Heretick are finally established Then we may look for nothing but Gabelles Tailles Impositions Benevolences and all sorts of illegal Taxes as from the other we may expect Burnings Massacres and Inquisitions In what is doing in Scotland we may gather what is to be expected in England where if the King has over and over again declared that he is vested with an Absolute Power to which all are bound to obey without reserve and has upon that annulled almost all the Acts of Parliament that passed in K. James the Ist's Minority though they were ratified by himself when he came to be of age and were confirmed by all the subsequent Kings not excepting the present We must then conclude from thence what is resolved on here in England and what will be put in execution as soon as it is thought that the Times can bear it When likewise the whole Settlement of Ireland is shaken and the Army that was raised and is maintained by Taxes that were given for an Army of English Protestants to secure them from a new Massacre by the Irish Papists is now all filled with Irish Papists as well as almost all the other Imployments it is plain That not only all the British Protestants inhabiting that Island are in daily danger of being butchered a second time but that the Crown of England is in danger of losing that Island it being now put wholly into the hands and power of the Native Irish who as they formerly offered themselves up sometimes to the Crown of Spain sometimes to the Pope and once to the Duke of Lorrain so are they perhaps at this present treating with another Court for the sale and surrender of the Island and for the Massacre of the English in it If thus all the several Branches of our Constitution are dissolved it might be at least expected that one part should be left entire and that is the Regal Dignity and yet even that is prostituted when we see a young Child put in the reversion of it and pretended to be the Prince of Wales concerning whose being born of the Queen there appear to be not only no certain Proofs but there are all the Presumptions that can possibly be imagined to the contrary No Proofs were ever given either to the Princess of Denmark or to any other Protestant Ladies in whom we ought to repose any Confidence that the Queen was ever with Child that whole matter being managed with so much Mysteriousness that there were violent and publick Suspitions of it before the Birth But the whole Contrivance of the Birth the sending away the Princess of Denmark the sudden shortning of the Reckoning the Queen 's sudden going to St. James's her no less sudden pretended Delivery the hurrying the Child into another Room without shewing it to those present and without their hearing it cry and the mysterious Conduct of all since that time no satisfaction being given to the Princess of Denmark upon her Return from the Bath nor to any other Protestant Ladies of the Queen's having been really brought to bed These are all such evident Indications of a base Imposture in this matter that as the Nation has the justest reason in the World to doubt of it so they have all possible reason to be at no quiet till they see a Legal and Free Parliament assembled which may impartially and without either Fear or Corruption examine that whole matter If all these Matters are true in fact then I suppose no Man will doubt that the whole Foundations of this Government and all the most sacred Parts of it are overturned And as to the truth of all these Suppositions that is left to every Englishman's Judgment and Sense The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy no Badges of Slavery THE Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the Crown of England having been invaded and broke in upon by the Power of the Court of Rome in K. Henry the Eighth 's time all Foreign Power was abolished and the Antient Legal Supremacy restor'd and by many additional Acts corroborated But all that was done of that kind in K. Henry the Eighth 's time was undone again in Queen Mary's and therefore in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth's Reign an Act of Parliament was made Intituled All Antient Jurisdiction restored to the Crown A Repeal of divers Statutes and Reviver of others and all foreign Power Abolished Which Act recites that whereas in the Reign of R. H. 8. divers good Laws were made and established as well for the utter extinguishment and putting away of all Vsurped and Foreign Powers and