same service what fortune ever fall by chance in the same Battle against the Mind and Will of the Prince as in this Land some time passed hath been seen that it is not reasonable but against all Law Reason and good Conscience that the said Subjects going with their Sovereign Lord in Wars attending upon him in his Person or being in other places by his commandment within this Land or without any thing should lose or forfeit for doing their true Duty and Service of Allegiance c That for the said deed and true Duty of Allegiance he or they be in no wise Convict or Attaint of high Treason ne of other Offences for that cause by Act of Parliament or otherwise by any Process of Law whereby he or any of them shall lose or forfeit Life Lands Tenements c. or any other things but to be for that Deed and Service utterly discharged of any vexation trouble or loss And if any Act or Acts or other Process of the Law hereafter thereupon for the same happen to be made contrary to this Ordinance that then that Act or Acts or other Process of the Law whatsoever they shall be stand and be utterly void 5 Provided always that no Person or Persons shall take any Benefit or Advantage by this Act which shall hereafter decline from his or their said Allegiance Which is to be understood of the King in being as the rest is and against the same King. To this Statute it is alledged That the Title of the Crown was then so ambiguous and uncertain that it was hard to know where the Right lay which is a meer Cavil The Title was as well known then as it is now and is a thing of that Nature that it can never be universally known but the greatest part of Mankind take those that are set over them without further inquiry nor is it reasonable any Man should suffer for obeying them whom he cannot nor ought to resist So that what some have said That every one is bound to take notice of the right Title at his Peril is true if the Person is in Possession but false if he is out of Possession Conquest a voluntary Surrender and a wilful Desertion of a Crown will put an End to the best founded Title in the World as I think is universally agreed so that if the Party pretending has a Title why is he not in Possession too if he is outed by his own Act I am absolved if by the Force and Power of another why then he is conquered and both waies especially if I had no hand in it I am and ought to be absolved before God and Man. But then not only the three Estates of England but all the Princes and Sovereign States in Christendom except the King of France have allowed King William and Queen Mary as the rightful Sovereigns of England which is a kind of giving Judgment against the late King after hearing what has been alledged on both sides So that this Case is determined by all the ways that are possible and must absolve any Man that submits now to that which is the only Supreme Power in England As to the Oaths taken to the late King they create no new Obligation upon us as to the Extent or Duration of our Allegiance I was under the same Obligations of Allegiance before I was sworn as I was afterwards and every Subject of England oweth by the Laws of England a natural Allegiance to his Prince before he is sworn as every Man ows naturally Obedience to God before he entreth into the Baptismal Covenant And so the Primitive Christians were under the same Obligation to their Princes we are tho' I do not find they ever swore any Allegiance to them 2. This Allegiance is no everlasting Obligation as to time Death a voluntary Resignation a wilful Desertion or a lawful Conquest will put an End to it 3. It is no wild unlimited Obedience whilst it lasteth but is plainly limited by the Laws of God and the Laws of the Land and if I obey further actively I am responsible to God and Man for it I come now to the Words of the Oaths which may seem to create any Scruple which in the Oath of Supremacy I suppose may be these I do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the King's Highness his Heirs and Lawful Successors and to my Power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the King's Highness his Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm Where first I observe No Man is bound beyond his Power but that all those who stuck to the late King till he left the Nation and another took Possession of his Place are thereby disabled and freed from attempting any further 2. That the Authorities I am to defend are such only as belong to the Crown of England by the Laws of England which are to limit my Allegiance but by the Law of England my Allegiance is now transferred to another and cannot be due to two in opposition each to other so that if I persist in my Allegiance to James II. I am punishable by these very Laws therefore my Allegiance which was a legal Allegiance is determined That in the Oath of Allegiance which may be objected is this I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the uttermost of my Power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crown and Dignity by reason or colour of any such Sentence or otherwise c. Now this Oath which binds us to the Person as the other did to the Power is capable of the same Limitation and is to be limited both as to its Duration and extent by the Laws of England and the Law of Nations and therefore is determinable the same way the other was The Power and uttermost Power reserved and expressed in these Oaths is a Legal Power and therefore no Man is by these Oaths bound to exert his Natural Power for any Prince when he may by the Laws of England be punished as a Traytor for so doing it being a Legal and not an Illegal Allegiance we promise by them If King James would have been contented with the Preheminences Priviledges Authorities and Jurisdictions granted and annexed or belonging to the Crown of England I believe no Body questions but he had been still King of England but by grasping at others which did not belong to him he cut off his own Succours and hindred those that otherwise would have defended him and them from doing it He would not be content with those that belonged to him and they could not fight for or defend any other and between these two his Power fell to the Ground by his own Default and his withdrawing put an End to his Sovereignty
of every individual Subject intending to refer the whole to a Parliament legally called freely elected and held without constraint wherein we shall not only have a particular regard to the Church of England as by Law established but also give such Indulgence to Dissenters as our People shall have no reason to be jealous of not expecting for the future any other favour to those of Our own Persuasion than the exercise of their Religion in their own private Families This Letter bears date at S. Germans en Laye Feb. 3. 1688-89 The Letter to the Convention of Scotland runs in a higher strain WE think fit to let you know That We have at all Times relied upon the Faithfulness and Affection of you Our Ancient People so much that in Our greatest Misfortunes heretofore We had recouâ—se to your Assistance and that with good Success to Our Affairs so now again We require of you to support Our Royal Interest expecting from you what becomes Loyal Faithful Subjects generous and honest Men that will neither suffer your selves to be cajoled nor frighted into any Action misbecoming true hearted Scotchmen and that to support the Honour of the Nation you will contemn the base Example of Disloyal Men and eternise your Names by a Loyalty suitable to the many Professions you have made to Vs in doing whereof you shall chuse the safest part since thereby you will evite the Danger you must needs undergo the Infamy and Disgrace you must bring upon your selves in this World and the Condemnation due to the Rebellious in the next and you will likewise have the Opportunity to secure to your selves and your Posterity the gracious Promises We have so oft made of securing your Religion Laws Properties Liberties and Rights which We are still resolved to perform as soon as is possible for Vs to meet you safely in a Parliament of Our Ancient Kingdom In the mean time fear not to declare for Vs your Lawful Sovereign who will not fail on Our Parts to give you such a speedy and powerful Assistance as shall not only enable you to defend your selves from any Foreign Attempt but put you in a Condition to assert our Right against our Enemies who have depressed the same by the blackest of Vsurpations the most unjust as well as the most unnatural of all Attempts which the Almighty God may for a Time permit and let the Wicked Prosper yet then must bring Confusion on such Workers of Iniquity We further let you know That we will pardon all such as shall return to their Duty before the last Day of this Month inclusive and that We will punish with the Rigor of Our Laws all such as shall stand out in Rebellion against Vs or Our Authority Given on Board the S. Michael March. 1. 1689. A Jesuit who printed a small Paper under the Title of Advices given to his R. H. M. the Prince of Orange by one of his most faithful Servants Your Emissaries saith he made use of the Mantle of Religion to create in the Minds of the People of England false Impressions of the Designs of the King their Master whilst they who knew the Bottom of the Business the Jesuites and his true Intentions as well as you are fully perswaded That this is a good Prince who desireth nothing but to pass the remainder of his Life in Peace and who would be well-contented to obtain from his Parliament the free Exercise of his own Religion without giving the least Disturbance to that which the greater part of his Subjects profess It is not possible for you to take too much care to hinder this Truth from spreading it self amongst the People c. Thus the late King promiseth and threatneth and the true hearted Jesuite who would not for the World speak one Tittle of Untruth to an Heretick of the first Magnitude voucheth for him and would make the whole Society that Holy Society which has so great an Influence over the Mind and Actions of that good Prince Garantee for the Performance of all these fine things Nay I will undertake if the English Hereticks will once more put their Heads into the Yoke That Lewis the Fourteenth too shall pass his Royal Word and unquestionable Faith That James the Second shall for the future keep his Faith with them in spite of all the Canons of the Church of Rome to the contrary as well as he himself has his to his own Protestant Subjects The Letter to the Convention of Scotland was dated on Board the S. Michael a French Ship then in the Road of Brest and the late King was then passing in her into Ireland where he arrived the 12 th of March at Kinsale with twelve French Men of War three Fire-ships and eight Merchant-Ships Now notwithstanding the King's Promise of Pardon to those of Brandon several were indicted at the Assizes insomuch that thirty or forty of them fled and came to Bristol being frighted at the Bloody Proceedings against one Mr. Brown of Cork who was hanged drawn and quartered at the same Assizes Several Petitions were also preferred for the Pardons of Sir Thomas Southwel and Captain Mills and many others who being taken in their Way to the North were carried to Galloway and there tried and condemned to die but the King rejected their Petition but however reprieved them for three Weeks deferring it till his Arrival at Dublin to which Place he set forward on the 21st of March. Nor was the rest of his Proceedings in that miserable Kingdom unlike this beginning all the English being plundered of all their Horses and Arms first then of their Cattle and Houshold-stuff and at last of their very Cloaths that they might be reduced to a necessity of perishing by Hunger Nakedness and Want and great numbers of them destroyed by pretended Legal Proceedings because they would not at first Summons open their Doors and suffer the Rabble to plunder them of all they had which I have had from some of my near Relations who fled on that account The twenty fifth of March a Proclamation was issued by him for the sitting of a Parliament the 7th of May at Dublin as it accordingly did wherein they passed these Acts. I. An Act to levy 20000l a Month for 13 Months II. For repealing the Act of Settlement and restoring old Preprietors III. For Liberty of Conscience IV. For taking off Penal Laws and Oaths V. For taking off all Writs of Error and Appeals to England VI. For taking off Valuation Money and other Rights from the Clergy VII For repealing the Act of the 23d of October 1641. VIII No benefit of Clergy for two Years IX All Patents for Offices void X. Ireland to be independent of England They seized in the mean time all the Protestants Estates who fled into England and all this they effected by the 26th of June 1. After this they passed an Act for repealing Poyning's Law. 2. Against counterfeiting Foreign Coins 3. And an Act for the
attainting of many hundreds of the Nobility and Gentry of Ireland who were fled to England But the Town of London-Derry holding out and an Army being every Day expected from England the 18th of July this Parliament was prorogued till October And notwithstanding their Act for Liberty of Conscience and the dreadful Expectation of a sudden Revenge from England the Popish Clergy took possession of the Tithes and Church Revenues and many of the Protestant Clergy were clapt up in Prison in order to be sent into France All that our discontented Party here in England have to say to all this is That we must not believe all is told as out of Ireland but they mean That we must believe nothing of it but call in King James and try if he will use us at the same rate We have a Proverb That Experience is the Mistress of Fools and certainly none but such will come a second time under her Discipline when they have so lately tried it and see every Day hundreds of the Nobility Gentry and Clergy of Ireland flee hither to save their Lives with the loss of all besides who agree very exactly one with another in these dreadful Stories Now let it be considered That nothing was asked by the Bishops in their Proposals and by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in their Petition of the 17th of November but a free and legal Parliament and the redress of our Grievances and that this was the principal thing insisted on by the Prince of Orange in his Declaration viz. That a free and legal Parliament might settle and adjust all things in Difference or Dispute and that it was obstinately refused till the 28 th of that Month and then granted when it could be no longer denyed the greatest part of the Nobility and Army being then gone over to the Prince Let also that Passage in the Proclamation of the 30th of November be considered For the reconciling all Publick breaches and obliterating the very Memory of all past Miscarriages We do hereby Exhort and kindly Admonish all our Subjects to dispose themselves to Elect such Persons for their Representatives in Parliament as may not be byassed by Prejudice or Passion but qualified with Parts Experience and Prudence proper for this Conjuncture and agreeable to the Ends and Purposes of this Our Gracious Proclamation And after this that by his Message of the 8th of December sent by the three Lords to the Prince of Orange He promised That he would consent to every thing that could be reasonably required for the security of those that came to it that is to the Parliament And that the 10th of December he sent for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and Sheriffs of London to Whitehall and again passed his Word to them That though the Queen and Child were gone for France He would stay with them And though this Evening he received such an Answer from the Prince to his Proposals that he could not but acknowledge It was fairer than he could or did expect Yet after all these solemn ingagements he burnt the Writs for the Summoning a Parliament and went the very next Morning away for France as his Roman Catholick Friends had foretold he would above a fortnight before And who accordingly sent a Letter to him whilst he was at Salisbury perswading him to come back from thence and withdraw himself out of the Kingdom and leave it in confusion Assuring him That within two years or less the Nation would be in such Disorder that he might come back and have his Ends of it That is Ruine both our Civil Rights and our Religion When all these solemn promises were thus easily broken or rather never intended to be kept at the very time they were made and all those he has since made have been violated in Ireland where only he had power to keep or break his word what can we conclude but that as a Minister of State told our Planters It is very undecent not to say undutiful to tax this King with his Promises Who of all Mankind has shewn the least regard in time past to them and for time to come can never be blamed for any breach the Parties that take his word being alone responsible for their Incorrigible folly Some of these Men have confessed to me That if ever he be restored they expect to be treated as they were before without Truth Justice or Mercy but yet if it be his Right he must have it And they cannot think his Right can be determined but by Death or a voluntary surrender or a Conquest made by meer Foreigners to the utter Ruine of the English Nation And they will admit no Answer to these their Scruples but what shall be palpable convictive to that degree that they can make no Objection against it Now if they admit all the dreadful consequences that attend this relapse and yield up both Church and Nation to certain and inevitable ruine only that they may not be damned for Perjury and Disobedience to a King that has left them when he might have staied and now offereth to return and do what he then refused What shall we also consent and sacrifice our selves and our Posterity to the humour or scruples of these Men Shall we suffer the English Church Liberties and the very People of England to be destroyed to gratifie two or three hundred persons I have been told from good hands That one of our Bishops said Though he could not satisfie his own Scruples yet he thought the English Nation fools if ever they suffered King James to return and I may from hence reasonably conclude the far greatest part of our Scruplers are satisfied in the main and do heartily wish they could also be of the same mind with the rest of their Brethren in the rest so that the cause is half obtained against them and those that shall finally persist will I hope not meet with much Compassion it being scarce possible there should not be a very great deal of Will in so much blindness Our Neighbours abroad have observed with wonder That England was delivered from an Arbitrary Government which threatned the Ruine and Desolation of the whole Nation and the Destruction of our Religion without the shedding any of our Blood and that the Army of our Deliverer has committed no Disorder or Rapine in any of our Places through which it passed Now one would think the manner of our Deliverance were a Mercy almost equal to the Deliverance No they cry if King William the Third had entered England as William the First did and had slain fifty or sixty thousand English Men in a Battle then it had been a true Conquest and would have justified our submission and God would not have been offended with us if we had transferred our Allegiance from the beaten James to the Victorious King William Now if Men were like Beasts altogether distitute of the use of Reason and capable of no Reflection but the