he would have no Bounds set to the Prerogative but his Will and his constant Actings accordingly For he told his Judges what he would have to be Law but this King enquires of his Judges what they think legal He grants the late King used a Dispensing Power and that too in other Instances besides Liberty of Conscience which Liberty our Author contrary to the Opinion of his Friend K. Lewis calls That desirable and necessary Good of Mankind Well let it be so where then is the Parallel Why K. James granted this against Law and without a Parliament and K. William grants the same Liberty not by a Dispensing Power or by Prerogative but by Parliament that is K. James he granted it arbitrarily K. William settles it by Law A most exact Parallel no doubt and a good proof of K. William's Design to be arbitrary To get off this Difficulty the Prince's Agents are topt upon us again and all the blame laid on him and them they managed poor K. James with invisible Wires who followed them blindfold to his Ruine And if he were so easily wheedled by corrupted Protestants may he not more easily be wheedled into illegal Acts by fierce and dangerous Papists And is it not then our wisest way never to wish for the return of a Prince so apt to be misled If he be in the best Humour in the World with the Bishops upon his Restauration how soon may some Popish Emissary incense him once more against them and run them again into the Tower and from thence to the Bar It was truly urged against King James that his Affection to Catholicks was too strong for the Law And he will prove King William guilty of the same Crime because in time of War he hires a few Foreign Papists into his Army Men who stay no where have no Interest to serve no Design but on their Pay and no Concern about the Religion of any Countrey which employs them which with inexpressibly Effrontery he saith is worse than K. James Cashiering in Times of Peace great Numbers of Military and Civil Protestant Officers and putting English and Irish Papists in their Places whose Interest obliged and inclined them to assist their King in changing the Laws and Religion of their Native Country Again he asks if Catholicks so he calls them falsely in most places not Roman Catholicks be not countenanced as much and do not exercise their Religion as freely now as ever I reply they are permitted but not at all countenanced Do their Fryars walk in their Habits Do they ring Bells and invite all People to see and hear their Foppery or make publick Shews Are they promoted to Churches and Colleges and to be Privy-Counsellors If not how absurd is his Query and where is his Parallel But he fancies we were safer when his Catholicks held their Liberty meerly by the Favour of English Protestants that is surely he means in King James his Time than now when Foreign Princes of the Romish Communion desire this King to tolerate them Now I dare appeal to the Papists Whether they did not believe it was King James not English Protestants who gave them the Liberty in that Reign And whether they did not think their Religion more likely to be restored by a Prince of their own Faith in League with France than by a Protestant King Confederate with the House of Austria And if they think their Religion likely to be restored by King William let them make it evident by fighting for him against the late King and his French Allies otherwise all these Suggestions are as groundless as they are malicious Yet upon a review of these Bug-Bears of his own dressing up Pag. 18. he is terribly affrighted and falls to pray to avert these imaginary Evils using at the same time all his Rhetorical Amplifications to excite us to run into certain and real Mischiefs by destroying this Government that can and will defend our Religion and Civil-Rights to set up another which will destroy both But the Cheat is so visible and his Parallels so ridiculous that no Man of Sense can be deluded by such Stuff Wherefore I conclude this Point and have shewed that King James was the Aggressor and hurt himself we injured no Body and only warded off the Blow which aimed at the very Vitals of our Church and our Ancient Government and which would have turned it from a Limited to an Absolute Monarchy a Change infinitetly worse for this Nation than our Author can pretend hath been made by this Revolution Which brings me to his second Pretence for restoring King James Pag. 19. viz. the settling the Government upon its old Basts And here while he seems to cite a long Passage out of his Adversary See the Pretences examined p. 10. he jumbles the Sense alters the Phrases puts in his own Comment and leaves out some of the Author's Words and then accuses the Writer whom he blindly and falsly guesses to be the Earl of Nottingham of Ignorance in the History and Affairs of England want of Judgment Disingenuity Impudence and what not But it will be easily proved to all that know that accomplished Peer and read this Libel this is not his Lordship's but this Libeller's own Character And his Reply to this Passage confirms the Observation for he owns that the Convention declared the Throne void therefore he mistakes in saying they made it void Declaring supposes a thing done already and he may as well charge a Judg with committing that Fact which he declares to be Treason as to say the Convention made the Throne void But we utterly deny his infallible Mark viz. That a Vacancy certainly proves a Monarchy Elective and that in an Hereditary Monarchy the Throne cannot be without a Possessor one Moment For Scotland is and ever was accounted to be no Elective but an Hereditary Monarchy yet upon the Death of Alexander there was a Vacancy for above five Years while the Hereditary Titles of six several Pretenders were under Examination And there was a Vacancy in England See Spotsw History of Scotland An. 1279. from the two and twentieth of August when King Richard the Third was slain till Henry the Seventh was declared King Yea there was more than a Moment between the Resignation of Edward and Richard the Second and the Entrance of Edward the Third and Henry the Fourth I grant that where there is no Doubt concerning the next Heir upon Cession or Death there the right Heir succeeds immediately But while the next Heir is ambiguous in an Hereditary Monarchy till the Title be examined cleared and declared none of the Pretenders can assume the Royal Dignity And his other Maxim of our Kings never dying is not literally true in any other Case but where there is a certain known and undoubted Heir So that an enquiry into and declaring the right Heir doth not make an Hereditary Monarchy Elective But he denies that the present Queen was the
right Heir and here he sets up his Bristles and hectors his Adversary the Convention and the Prince of Orange for not proving the Prince of Wales Supposititious Now he neither proves it a real Birth himself nor answers half the Arguments have been urged against it yet is very angry that others will not prove a Negative The Convention had seen the Depositions Pag. 20. knew the Credit of the Witnesses and all the Circumstances of the Delivery yet after all did not believe it a real Birth they had examined it as far as was necessary to their own Satisfaction and after all declared the Princess of Orange to be the right Heir The Papists whose Religion was to be brought in by the Father and established by this pretended Son and all their Well-wishers should have brought better Proof of their New Heir than a few depending partial interested People it was their Business to have produced their Evidence The Convention judged according to all the Proofs they had and unanimously declared for the Princess's Right who being the next Heir in their Judgment and in the Opinion of the whole Nation some few excepted they sufficiently shewed they did not intend to make this Monarchy Elective in that they declared the true Heir as they verily believed to be Queen But suppose they had spent Months or Years in the Inquiry and left the Nation to sink in the mean while what would all this have signified to Jesuits and Nose-led Protestants Unless they had pronounced for the Prince of Wales right or wrong this sort of People would not have acquiesced in their Determination and therefore they did wisely after they and almost the whole Body of English Protestants were satisfied not to trouble themselves any further Besides Pag. 21. if King James did believe it why did he not put it upon a Trial in Parliament in his own Time He understood the People of England generally suspected there was Artifice used to exclude a Protestant Heir and therefore why did he not call a Parliament long before the Prince of Orange came over and submit it to their Inquiry Yea when the Prince was come He the Bishops Nobility and Officers yea all England desired King James to call a Parliament to settle this and other Matters yet he would not call one but fled from this way of Trial. If it be said King James had proved it by the Depositions 't is answered These were Witnesses all of one side chosen by a Party sworn before partial Men and in too private a Place for an Hereditary Monarchy The People doubting about the true Heir ought to have Satisfaction given to their Representatives in Parliament which was not done yea King James did not call these Witnesses till fourteen Days before the Prince landed viz. October 22. thereby shewing he did not intend to give the Nation any sort of Satisfaction but Fear and the serving a Turn extorted this Condescension from him Wherefore when King James would not try this Matter by his Parliament when he might have done it why should the Convention do his Business for him and neglect the Nation 's Safety But he urges that none were denied Satisfaction who desired it I reply the Princess of Denmark formerly complained she had not the Satisfaction given her which was fit and it is generally believed she was sent out of the way on purpose The Dutch Embassador who ought to have satisfied Princess Mary was not called the Bishops by design were sent to the Tower the good Protestants were all at Church and this lucky Juncture with a Place suddenly resolved on seem plainly designed for Privacy And indeed none were at the Birth it self but interested Friends and Well-wishers to a Popish Heir whose Design and Hopes made some of them willing to affirm and others easy to believe any thing Nor is the late Daughter's Birth among Foreigners and such as would top this Prince of Wales upon us a sufficient Evidence that a Son was born before the Reckoners there were as often shifted as they had been here and as few Witnesses were called and after all the Letters that were writ hither and after all the Promises of a Birth that should be so well attested as to confirm the former the one was managed as much in the dark as the other had been nor have we yet heard of any of those Attestations with which we were so much threatned Having therefore not proved a Prince of Wales Page 22. the Argument from his Innocency and the Injury done him falls Non entis nulla sunt Accidentia Had the Convention believed there was such a Son they would have owned him as Heir but believing there was no such Person they cannot properly be said to intend or do him any Injury Queen Mary's Resolution to have the Prince joined with her is known to many The Injury done to Princess Ann and her Children is none at all but a Benefit for what was her Title or theirs worth if the Prince of Orange had permitted the Papists to set up a Prince of Wales and perhaps Dukes of York and Glocester to exclude them all for ever Is not her Succession and her Issues both nearer and surer than it was under King James King William it 's true is made King for his Life but if he die before the Queen which the Hazards he runs in defending both Sisters Titles makes too probable then the Princess Ann and her Children have no Injury at all and if he should survive Queen Mary I appeal to any impartial Man whether this King who rescued the Princess's Title from being extinguished do not merit to keep the Soveraignty for the rest of his Life especially since she and her Heirs precede his by any other Wife From Aggravations he falls to History and while he blames his Adversaries Ignorance therein he evidently shews his own in affirming that no such Breach was ever made in our English Succession before Whereas we have had but 27 Reigns from the Conquest to this Revolution and in that time there have been several Breaches in the Succession most of them greater than this viz. William the Conqueror William Rufus Henry the First King Stephen King John Henry the Fourth and Seventh to which some who deny Henry the 8th's Marriage with his Brother's Widow to be lawful add Queen Mary and the Papists put in Queen Elizabeth Now upon such Breaches the Sentence of the People was had to confirm the Pretender's Title yet this Kingdom still remained Hereditary in common Account and never was reckoned as by his Argument it would have been an Elective Monarchy But to keep to his Instances there was a greater Breach than is now by King Henry the Seventh's coming to the Crown for though Richard the Third was slain and left no Child yet he left an Heiress Elizabeth Daughter of King Edward the Fourth and some of her Sisters were then alive as was also a Son and a Daughter
of George Duke of Clarence all of the House of York to whom the Right of Succession certainly belonged yet Henry was crowned in October 1485 and assumed the Crown in Right of the House of Lancaster Bacon 's History of Hen. 7. p. 6 11 and when he did marry the Heiress of York he would not suffer her Title to be mentioned nor allow the Parliament to settle the Crown any further than on his own Heirs So that here were four or five Persons excluded at his assuming the Crown and no Care taken of them in the Settlement afterwards Yet still the Monarchy remained Hereditary His Adversary did not instance in Edward the Third Page 23. because the only Breach then was in the Person of the reigning King but then he was worse dealt with than the late King being forced to resign first his Crown and soon after his Life and to thank his Deposers for declaring the next in Succession King But in Henry the Fourth's Case there were great Breaches made which he would conceal by saying King Richard the Second left no Son and by falsly affirming Henry was the next Heir because the Pretences of the House of York were not yet set on foot But the Truth is King Richard's right Heirs were the Mortimers descended from a Daughter of Lionel Duke of Clarence elder Brother to Henry the Fourth's Father And Edmund Mortimer Earl of March his Brother Sir Roger his Sister Ann by whom came afterwards the true Title to the House of York and Elianor were then and long after all alive and utterly excluded when Henry assumed the Crown though the Bishop of Carlisle in open Parliament declared that Edmund aforesaid was true and undoubted Heir to the Crown So that here was the reigning King deposed and murdered a remote Branch of the Royal Family advanced and four Princes of the Blood with their future Issue excluded from their Right and kept out for three Reigns Which is a much greater Breach than is now and our Author's Outcry for a Parallel shews his Ignorance or his Dishonesty We can shew him Acts of Parliament which have not only excluded the Collateral Line but the right Heirs even when they were not as it is in our Case of a Religion different from the established one and inconsistent with the Safety of England In short Page 24. considering the Reason and Necessity our Revolution hath made the least Breach that ever was made in such a Change The late King was not deposed but deserted us his next Heir the present Queen of whom there is no doubt was put into the Vacant Throne and the Crown settled Hereditarily upon her and her Sister and their Heirs successively there is no Breach made at all except one Contingency happen and if it do 't is Personal Temporary and highly-merited and if greater Breaches never made this Monarchy Elective this lesser one cannot do it The Succession is taken due Care of in the right Line as the Convention believes and settled on the true Heirs so that they were no Republicans but true Friends of the Old English Monarchy which the People of England I hope will never change for French Slavery the certain Consequent of that Restauration into which he would decoy us The next Bugbear he sets up to fright us into Rebellion against the present King is the Fear that the Title of Conquest should alter the Government But by the way since the late King cannot return but by Force is there not more danger that he proving victorious should urge this Title in prejudice of our Liberties who was so arbitrary when he was here And if so we leap out of the Frying-pan into the Fire by his recovering his Throne King William I am sure never pleaded this Title nor do either of the Authors he cites maintain that he conquered the People of England though in Fact he did conquer the late King We freely submitted to him and he as freely swore to govern us by our Laws Which one Observation spoils all his impertinent Declamation upon the Mischiefs of Conquest viz. Slavery Loss of the Subjects Rights and Properties and Change of Laws c. Sure he is dreaming of some wretched Country conquered and ruled by the most Unchristian King Our Prince treats his very Enemies who stay here better than King Lewis doth his own Subjects and the Conquest those Authors speak of relating only to the late King is very consistent 1. with the Prince's Declaration 2. with the Convention settling the Crown on him and 3. with our Rights and Freedom When the Prince put out his Declaration Pag. 25. he could not foresee King James would finally refuse to call a Parliament or that he should first resolve to fight and being conquered to fly rather than to treat He brought no more Force with him than sufficed to protect himself and the English who joined with him in requiring their Grievances might be redressed which shews he did not aim at Conquest Yea when the late King's Army was routed and disbanded he yielded to treat according to his Declaration which shewed no Design to take advantage as a Conqueror And when the late King fled from this Treaty he did not meddle either with the Administration or the Crown till they were successively offered him by those who represented the People of England and he granted them all their Liberties at first and since he hath had Power he hath redressed all the Grievances which the Trouble his Enemies give him will permit him to help nor hath he refused any Acts of this kind which the Parliament hath offered him So that as far as he could then foresee his Promises in his Declaration and his Actions do agree He might safely say he came not for the Crown but did not say he would not accept it if there were no body else to wear it or if it were freely offered him And as to the Convention's Gift they and King William believe after the Throne was vacant that they ought to have declared his Wife's Hereditary Right As to himself he will own that the Crown was the just Gift of a free and grateful People who so little believe his having infringed their Liberties as Conquerors use to do that I dare say if it were needful the Parliament would add any further Confirmation to his Title Nor will the Body of the English Nation suffer a Mercenary Pen hired with a few Luidores to alienate their Affections from so kind and gracious a Prince who perhaps might have seized the Crown by his Power but chose to accept it in his dear Consort 's Right and as a Reward of his personal Services and never did bear himself like a Conqueror or treat us like a conquered People His Declamation upon the woful Condition of a Conquered Nation the Value of our Liberties Page 26. and the Zeal other People have shewed and we ought to shew to shake off Slavery and
Arbitrary Power I highly approve and would have transcribed it had it not been too long being a just Satyr upon King James his Effects to rule us Arbitrarily a true Description of the miserable Condition of the poor French who as he grants pag. 54. are all made Slaves And truly this whole Discourse is useful both as it arms us against our late Arbitrary Monarch's fresh Attempts by that Tyrant's Assistance and as it is a clear Vindication of the late Revolution and a deserved Encomium on those brave English-men who after the Example of their Ancestors nobly shook off the Shackles K. James was putting on them However Page 27. this can be no Motive to any body to rebel against K. William who as this Enemy confesses never yet pretended to this Title of Conquest and knows nothing what Books his Secretary licenses and that Book which moves this Author's Jealousy speaks only of a Conquest over K. James not over the People of England so that it makes nothing to his purpose K. William as his Declaration for Scotland assures us came to hinder the late King from taking away his Subjects Liberties and it was high time when that King in his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in Scotland Feb. 12. 1686. said in the very Phrase of the French Tyrant he would have his absolute Power obeyed without reserve and made them swear to assist and defend him and his Heirs in the exercise of this his absolute Power against all Deadly Now he that claims absolute Power and Obedience to it without reserve leaves his Subjects no Liberties he owns that his Will is not bounded by Laws or Priviledges and no Law can exempt a Subject in that case from obeying an illegal Command Yea he makes that enslaved People swear to put this heavy Yoke on their own Necks and to help him to destroy all that stood up for their Laws and Liberties And they were following this Copy in England when Jefferies would suffer no Lawyer to plead in the High-Commission-Court and without hearing the Cause gave Sentence in these Words It is the King's Pleasure that such and such be suspended fined deprived c. And the late King himself at Oxford would not hear the Magdalen-Fellows plead their Cause but in a Fury told them He would make them know he was their King and would be obeyed Now let this Gentleman declaim as much as he will against a King's infringing his Peoples Liberties it hurts not K. William but falls very heavy upon his own Master And so doth this eloquent Description of the Mischief of a Prince's assuming a Dispensing Power Page 28. which fatally threatens the Liberties of a People and as he saith makes them Tenants at Will for their Privileges wherein the Law gives them a Freehold And was it not time for the English to look about them when the late King claimed and exercised this Power in a thousand Instances But to avoid that natural Application he pretends to wonder that our Convention and Parliament since the Revolution never set Bounds between the Prerogative and the Peoples Rights Which is a notorious piece of Dissimulation for he knows when the Convention tendred the Crown to their Majesties in that very Declaration solemnly approved Feb. 12. 1688. these Bounds are set and the Subjects Liberties and Rights declared especially such as the late King had invaded to which K. William consented and this was enrolled both in the Parliament-Rolls and in the Chancery * Hist of Desertion p. 127. Yea this Author cites this Declaration three or four times by name 33 34 35. yet here he would insinuate there was no such thing only that he may slander the present King and Parliament With equal Confidence he accuses K. William upon the Reduction of Ireland for acting Arbitrarily because to spare the Effusion of his Subjects Blood he granted some Privileges to the Irish who laid down their Arms by his own Authority tho he confesses he got them afterwards confirmed by Parliament Which is no more Power than a General is often wont to assume in signing Capitulations without consulting his Prince And is this Criminal in a King that is allowable in some of his Officers He knows the late King in time of Peace granted both Privileges and Dispensations more contrary to Law and despised a Parliament's Confirmation affirming his Will to be sufficient Authority for the most illegal Grants From this he passes to harangue upon the Injustice of illegal Imprisonment and the Worth of Freedom which he sets off as the choicest part of our Magna Charta forgetting that K. James contrary to Law imprisoned many hundreds in all parts of England upon Monmouth's Invasion and clapt up seven Bishops Peers of the Realm most unjustly and almost daily broke in upon this dear Piece of our English Privileges in time of Peace But he that excuses this and will not see it Pag. 29. roars out at our present King for clapping up a few Jacobites and aggravates the Matter extreamly but saith not one word of the Occasion But 't is well known that while the French King and King James prepare to invade us from without the Papists and their Protestant Accomplices of that Party have laid divers treasonable Plots at home to destroy this Government and by railing by Libels and all other Methods have laboured to disturb the publick Peace to seduce their Majesties Subjects from their Allegiance and to take away their Majesties Lives and Crowns for which under any Government but this many hundreds of them e're now had paid their Heads But our Prince who like the brave Antoninus punishes all Offences more gently than the Law ordains * Vide Jul. Capitolin in Vitâ pag. 206. hath been content only to confine some of the chief of them to prevent their doing Mischief as the Safety of the Nation absolutely requires when Invasion was threatned and this is the Occasion of all this Noise As for the Benefit of Acts of Parliament which he saith they were denied I must observe they were Men generally that deserved no Protection from or Benefit by the Laws because they have not only refused to swear Allegiance to this Government but by Words and Actions declared they are sworn Enemies to it and resolve to overturn it as soon as they can Nor could the Government want Informations against them who had so often and openly discovered their Intentions But it was K. William his innate Clemency which would soften any but such ungrateful Creatures that made him forbid any Prosecution And most of these Men were set at Liberty so soon that his Majesty's Friends thought his good Nature prevailed over that Caution which seemed necessary while so many Plots had been laid and were actually carrying on Yea one of them upon whom actual Treason in the highest Degree was proved hath been pardoned after Conviction and Condemnation and of many hundreds guilty of Treason two only have suffered
for it in this Reign yet he rails at the Parliament for suspending the Hubeas Gorpus Act as if this were betraying their Trust and giving up all our Liberties Whereas first they had full Power and Right to suspend an Act made by the same Body not many Years ago And Secondly there was Reason yea Necessity to suspend it then when the French were about to invade us and so many ill Men at Land ready to join them The Disappointment of which unnatural Design of betraying his Native Country is the true Cause why this Writer one of the Criminals falls into a Rage like that of the evil Spirit in the Gospel Matth. 8.29 who counted it a Torment not to be suffered to do Mischief For they who would bring in that King by Force that without any Parliament suspended all Laws cannot be concerned for English Laws or Liberties But as one of the Accomplices writ to the French King in a Letter that was seized their being in Prison made it impossible for them to serve him as they desired The raving Fit holds him all the next Page Page 30. wherein with much Fury and no Sense he inveighs against the Parliament who had full Power to repeal this Act only for suspending it till the Danger was over and as it proves it was pity this Author was kept in Prison and hindred from appearing in Arms for then he would have had his Desert e're now and this Libel had been strangled in the Birth I am sure all good Subjects of the Government have their Liberty and had during the Suspension of that Act none but Rebels and Plotters Enemies to the Government and such as renounce its Protection can complain And if these bloody Men had been let loose the Parliament had betrayed the Liberties of all the King 's peaceable Subjects and sacrificed many of their Lives and the Government had not protected those who bear true Faith and Allegiance to it Yet he hath one true Observation in his Anger viz. That K. James never dream'd of such a Method No for he hang'd up the Innocent with the Guilty he proclaim'd divers Peers and Gentlemen Traitors for intending to join with Monmouth after he was defeated My Lord Macclesfield's Brandon Gerrard's Delamere's and others Cases are not forgot He scorn'd to play at the small Game of suspending one Law for a few Months on just Reason in a legal way he without any Parliament suspended what Laws he pleased for ever And can it be the way to secure our Liberties to send for this Prince again He in times of Peace cashiered all Officers and Souldiers that were qualified Pag. 31. and got a whole Army of unqualified Tories in Ireland and put out most of the qualified Officers filling their Places with illegal Men here yet this Writer who hath the Forehead to excuse all this arraigns K. William for having a very few Foreigners in a great Army in times of War and this after they are gone out of the Nation and can do us no harm It was no Crime in King James to set up a barbarous Court to take away Mens Liberties and Livelihoods without Law or Reason and yet it is very criminal in this King to pardon one of the Members of it upon his Repentance yea he seems angry he doth not hang all K. James his Evil-Ministers among which probably he had come in for his share K. James in times of Peace executed many by Martial Law for deserting before any Law enabled him so to do And if K. William have used this Method in time of War it is very justifiable Yet this is brought in to excuse that violent invading of the Properties of the richest College in England without any Colour of Law only because the Fellows of it were by their Oaths obliged to deny an unreasonable Request of the King 's A dreadful Precedent to all the Nation that their Estates were all at the Mercy of that Arbitrary Prince But the Water runs very low with him when his utmost Malice against K. William can find nothing to accuse him for but what was answered before and when he can meet nothing in this Nation blame-worthy but is forced to run as far as New-Englaud for a trifling Complaint He goes so oft into Scotland for Instances of the King 's Arbitrary and Illegal way of Government Pag. 32. that this together with the whole Thread of his Stile made me conclude him to belong to that Nation We who feel the Justice and Gentleness of the Government cannot be easily led to think that Matters are managed otherwise elsewhere We find it 's true the Soldiers are apt upon many occasions to be irregular but we see that upon Complaints Redress is given and care is taken for the future And of this the Nation is so sensible that Men are willing to pass over several things which otherwise could not be well digested and could not at all be born with if we were not sure that the Government did not encourage them For after all Soldiers are no Philosophers Yet this in general did not satisfie me So I writ to a Friend that is nearer the Scene and knows matters better and I will give you this account which I had from him The Author of this Pamphlet is so nearly related to Sir Ja. Man ry that when the Character of the one is given the other will be best known by it He was of a Presbyterian Education and entred into some Confidences with K. James's Ministers But upon this Revolution he got to be a Member of the Convention in Scotland in which he bare great Sway and was a main Stickler for the Abdication and their present Majesties He was a constant Haranguer during that whole Debate which he did not manage as some others did Upon the Extremity to which K. James had driven Matters and the Warrant that extraordinary Occasions gives for extraordinary Proceedings he went wholly upon Republican Principles and she wed so violent a Fury against all the Episcopal Party that his being like to pretend to a great Post upon the Merit of those Services gave them very sad Apprehensions This was signified by many of them to the King For it was he that stood upon the taking away of Episcopacy and carried it to be made a main Article of their claim of Right tho it standing then established by Law many who agreed to place it among the Grievances that were to be redress'd could not think it reasonable to claim it as a Right Since there was then no Law in force for it and a great many against it He was one of the Three that were sent up with the Tender of the Crown of Scotland to Their Majesties But when he sound that the King intended to try him first in a lower Post of the Ministry before he would raise him up so high as his Ambition carried him He upon this began to cabal against the Government and upon
and they know K. James mortally hates them and never can forgive them His Fancy that Sweden should wish for an English King and his Heir both of that odious Religion which they have banished out of their Country with their lawful Queen who had embraced it is as peculiar and ridiculous as that Denmark which lends us Forces should hate King William for bringing one of their Blood Royal to so near a Possibility of the English Crown And England knows it is her Interest to have a King that will protect them from the fatal Ambition of France so that all his Politicks fail him and he must suppose us all as he did Pag. 2. to be Ideots and Madmen to be enticed into a Civil War with such Paltry Reasonings as these His last Exploit is to despise his Adversary and charge him again with Impudence and Emptiness for wondring any Man should be so weak as to believe that K. James's Restauration is the way to secure the Protestant Religion and here with his usual Confidence he undertakes to prove and answer all things but of his Performance let the Reader judge First Pag. 41. he will prove our Religion was in no danger of being over-turned by King James's Practices And here again all that Prince's open trampling on Law and Right all his Zeal by Promises and Threats to make Converts his Swarms of Priests his standing Army to protect them his Rage and Rigour against all that oppose his illegal Methods to bring Popery to be the established Religion are by this Jesuit in Disguise smoothed over or past by as nothing extraordinary nothing but a desire natural to Mankind to procure some ease to them of their own Perswasion c. But if this were all why did he not accept of that Liberty which his Loyal Protestant Parliament offered to grant that is Indulgence as to their Worship to all Papists and Liberty to preferr a certain number of others This he rejected with Rage and dissolved that Parliament only because this would not answer his design of putting all Power into Popish Hands And as to Liberty of Conscience the thing needs none of his Commendation The Roman Faith indeed needs severity without which no Nation under Heaven would endure it But our most Holy Faith can subsist without Compulsion and therefore this Nation was not against it if a further design had not been discovered We were sure K. James could not love Liberty of Conscience for its own sake first because Popery absolutely damns all other Religions And can a devout Papist give whole Nations leave to go to Hell Secondly because it neither is nor ever was allowed in any Popish Country where that Church had Power to persecute Thirdly because he used all means but open Force which he durst not practise to urge Men not half convinc'd to declare themselves Papists against their Conscience as divers of them now declare Wherefore Liberty of Conscience was known to be inconsistent with the Principles and Practices of his Church and contrary to his French Master's Copy as well as to his own Judgment and all this makes it plain he only pretended to love Liberty of Conscience to break the Church of England divide Protestants and set up Popery at the last So that the thing it self was as dangerous in his Hands as the Methods were unjustifiable The Counsel was given by Contzen the Jesuit long since That to divide Protestants by seemingly favouring all Parties was the ready way to bring in as our Author kindly calls it the Roman Religion At last it seems it is with him but a bare Supposition that some did intend by Liberty of Conscience Pag 42. to preferr Catholicks and propagate that Religion yet he thinks K. James understood the World and England so well that he would never attempt it It s now his Cue to make K. James very wise even in a Point where his zeal blinded him whereas just before he was the weakest Man alive and foresaw nothing and tho' he used the means this self contradicting Creature will not allow he wished for the End I am sure no body was in so much Grace with him as these Priests and new Converts whose warm Brain and enterprizing Faith intirely guided him And it is no thanks to K. James his or their good Intentions that these Projects did not succeed but to the early discovery of the Plot and the Nation 's brave opposing him in bringing it to effect But Truth will out and therefore finally he grants that which all England knows to have been plain Matter of Fact that K. James did every thing to advance Popery and suppress the Protestant Religion and then he guards himself with the little Progress that was made Which is false for in less than two years time after he pulled off his Mask there were many in the Court the Camp the Vniversities Inns of Court in all Cities and in the Country who really or feignedly turned Thousands more complyed and were ready to shake Hands with their Religion as soon as their Interest told them they might do it safely And what might have been the Consequence of our Passive Obedience as some expound it in a year or two longer is easy to judge But he would recall his grant again and says If the late King had by real Discoveries evidenced his Intentions to ruine the established Religion nothing but an universal Defection could have followed Oportet Mendacem esse Memorem He said Pag. 6th That the Army was quite Poysoned and that there was nothing sound and untainted in the whole Kingdom and Pag. 11th There was an universal Defection of his Children Servants Souldiers and Subjects Therefore by his own Rule K. James had made real publick and undoubted Discoveries of his Intention to ruine the established Religion Well but he urges That the Catholicks were but few However they daily encreased and had a Biggotted King to protect them from fear of Laws an Army after the designed Regulation ready to defend them the Sectaries generally on their side and wanted nothing but a pre-engaged Parliament to make them uppermost As to the Laws upon which he makes so large an Encomium as if they were a sufficient security to our Religion I grant they would have been so Pag. 43. if our King knowing this had not resolved to break through all these Fences and pick'd out Judges for his purpose who expounded the Laws as the King directed and set up his Dispensing Power at one blow to null them all Laws are 't is true as the Philosopher saith the Soul of a City but the Magistrate is the Soul of the Laws which are a dead Rule a meer Shadow when the Prince and his Judges conspire not to execute them and no Man dare claim the Benefit or need fear the Penalty of them What good did the Laws do any Protestant cited before the High-Commission-Court What hurt did they do to any illegal Officers Magistrates or
promoted Priests What Security were they to Corporations when Jeofferies roared out the King 's Will. Old Maynard when King William told him he had out-lived most of his Profession truly answered him That if He had not come over he had over-lived the Law it self And we had seen the French Tyrant in one part of his Reign subvert all the Laws of his Country and destroy all the Liberties of his Subjects He was going on in the same Design Licet non passibus aequis And why should not he hope and we fear that what was done at our next Door was poffible to be done here 'T is true the Nation was in as little danger of loving him then as they are now of wishing his Return But those Fears and Jealousies which he rails at in the last Page and here commends had signified nothing if he had gone a little further in these Methods He resolved to have no Parliament but such an one as would engage before hand to betray their Country and comply with him in every thing And was it likely an oppressed People could manage a wise and discreet Treaty with such a King in such a Parliament He foresees it will be objected That K. James being a Friend and Ally of France could not want French Forces to compel the more obstinate sort of Hereticks which is a dreadful but a certain truth and he gives no satisfaction by his Sham-Reasons to the contrary First K. James he thinks was not so lost to all Discretion and Morality to accept French Troops for now you must know he is to be represented very Discreet and he that was so easily drawn in by his Enemies to act against his Judgment is now so wise and wary that for fear of ill Consequences he will not admit any Succors from his Friends to help him to save a Million of Souls Credat Judaeus Apella He that was training up many of the old Race of murdering Irish for this meritorious Work would not if occasion had been have scrupled adding French Dragoons And our Authors Morality is not to be relyed on when he saith K. James refused French Succours at the Revolution for 't is well known the King of France's Hands were full elsewhere he having then made a violent and treacherous Invasion upon the Empire and besieged Philipsburg For his Intelligence from England was that he relyed on he believed that this Kingdom was falling into a Division and a Civil War that would be so equal and last so long that he might finish his Conquests in Germany and yet come time enough to compleat our Ruin while we should have been destroying one another Otherwise K. James if he had not wanted time and his Ally-Forces ready would no more have refused French Troops to keep the Prince from coming in than he now scruples to use them for turning him out But he pretends it was not the French King's Interest to lend K. Pag. 44. James any Forces to assist him in the Conversion of England But suppose he were bent upon it and would hazard three Crowns on Earth for it as his saying was and chanced to be opposed in it by his stubborn Subjects K. Lewis must not let his dear Friend sink or suffer by following his Example especially since he was sure as long as this King was in Power he could not want one that would stand by him in all his Vsurpations and Cruelties without Reserve And I dare affirm the greatest part of the Nation firmly believes That within a little time King Lewis would have sent and King James have accepted a Body of booted French Apostles for this religious Work To divert with rational Fear our Author starts an improbable Paradox and for three Columns together pursues it with full cry viz. That the French K. rather wishes England should remain Protestant than become Papist because forsooth he is in no danger of an Invasion while the Nations continue to be of different Religions Which frivolous and false reasoning deserves no Answer so that I will make a few brief Remarks upon it and dismiss it First Pag. 45. he hath learned of the Jesuits to suppose England was always terrible to France till Queen Elizabeth's Reign and to blame the Reformation for this Whereas it is well known that the English lost their hold in France in the Reigns of Hen. 6th and Queen Mary two Popish Princes and none of our Kings were ever more courted by France than that Illustrious reformed Queen who broke the dangerous growth of the most Catholick King tho' her Subjects and his were of different Religions Secondly he falsly supposes all the French are zealous Catholicks whereas those of the Roman Communion there the Clergy excepted are no Bigots and there are many thousands who have by Cruelty been forced to declare for Popery that yet are Protestants in their Hearts and the French King knows that if he be invaded by a Protestant Prince these Men will endanger him by a Revost Thirdly we observe that many Catholick Countries have been so Barbarously harrassed and their Princes so injured by the French K. that without any regard to his Profession He who shall be the happy Instrument to humble France will be gratefull to the greatest part of Christendom because the Mounsieur usurps upon Papist and Protestant without distinction Lastly I must observe that the French King 's late inhumane Usage of the Protestants hath made him odious especially to all reformed Nations and our English have lately shewed they will and can fight as bravely against France as ever their daring Ancestors have done Wherefore all this Banter of the Author's is a false Alarm designed to make us secure on that side where our danger is To this he adds another Fiction of K. James his offering us to carve out our own Securities Pag. 26. and dreams of lasting legal full and happy Settlements we might have had under him But when and to whom were these Offers made the Prince made Offers to him and desired a Parliament might be called but K. James burnt the Writs and fled from the Treaty dreading nothing more than a Legal Settlement to tie up his Hands Promises he had made many especially in his Distress but alas he had taught us they were Insignificant and it was plain enough the Irish and French were always his Darlings For the English Nation he never loved them yea his parting Letter shews his Hopes viz. That we should be so divided as to send for him again upon his own Terms He therefore that would not stay to redress any thing nor endure either a Treaty or a Parliament for fear of being bound to secure us by Law and now attempts to break in upon us by Force He is to answer for all the Money and Lives spent in our own necessary Defence We desired to be quiet under him and neither began nor continue this War further than for the safety of our Religion and Liberties
So that we shall have Cham's Fate to be Servant of Servants and if K. Lewis help to make us so he will account these three Crowns a Purchace and no Present But considering how uneasy English Protestants must be under a double Slavery the only way to tame them must be a severe Persecution to which if Interest did not lead the French King Ambition would For he Dragooned his own Subjects against his Interest purely out of Vain-Glory and to shew his Will was absolute and uncontroulable and that neither Conscience nor the Fear of God should exempt any Man from Obedience to it besides we saw by K. James his Elight that he considers not the Nation 's safety when he thinks himself in Danger and when he hath his trusty Irish and French Guards about him 't is but pretending our Liberties and Religion are inconsistent with his Security and then Popery and Slavery must be advanced to keep him in the Throne We may take the Author's Word for K. James's Concessions to the Scotch Plotters Pag. 50. since he hath no doubt been in all Plots since the Revolution but suppose they have his Word his Hand and Seal for these Favours we know he will promise any thing in his Distress but were he restored and in full Power it would be pleaded he was under a Force when he made these promises and so not obliged to perform them Moreover I would ask why he did not offer such Acts of Grace here while he had Power to call a Parliament to confirm them The only reason must be that if his Concessions had passed into Laws and other Securities had been given he could never have ruined the Protestant and set up his own Religion Nor would he be so free to grant now if he did not know how to be absolved from fulfilling those Grants His Pre-Engagements to the Pope are well known we have his Letters to the Holy Father and hear of the Arguments used at Rome for his Holinesses's Aid which are his losing three Kingdoms for his Zeal to reduce us to the Catholick Faith and his Resolution upon his Restauration to promote the same pious VVork Oh! but King VVilliam he suggests hath made more Engagements to the Holy-Chair to gain the Pope to favour his Advancement to the Throne Very Comical King VVilliam's Advancement to the Throne was neither foreseen by the Pope nor any Catholick Prince nor by himself Some of them might possibly know of his Descent and favour it as it might tend to weaken their common Enemy the French King and his only considerable Allie but none of them foresaw that K. James would desert and therefore the Liberty the Papists enjoy here is owing to King William's good Nature and Tenderness not to any Promises he made beforehand to any of the Confederates His next Attack is upon Dr. King's Book of the State of the Protestants in Ireland Pag. 51. which proves that K. James expressed his Hatred of Protestants and his Bigotry for Popery there since the Revolution A Book writ with that known Truth and Firmness of Reason that every Page of it is Demonstration which hath been often threatned with an Answer but the long Silence of the party shews guilt and despair As for this Author's Falshoods and Calumnies I refer the Reader to that convincing Tract which not only confutes all our Adversary's sham Stories of these Irish Affairs but exposes his Impudence in venturing his Credit by telling such Improbabilities The Truth in short is that Tyrconnel had disarmed all the Protestants before K. James came over and left them naked to the Outrages of the bloody Rapperees who plundered whole Towns and killed many and upon Complaint no Protestant could have Redress K. James would not employ nor trust any of them their causes in all Courts still went against them the Soldiers oppressed them the meanest Papists insulted over them their Lands were unjustly taken from them by that tyrannical Law of Repealing Settlements and this by K. James's own Sollicitation who struggled with his Bishops and modest Judges to carry it and after he was duly informed of the Cruelty and Injustice of it still pressed it and at last got it passed to the ruine of Thousand Protestant Families most of which had purchased and paid for these Estates Those who stay'd in Ireland were oppressed imprisoned and used barbarously Those who fled for safety or for Bread were attainted of High Treason by an Act that never had a Precedent in any Age since the Roman Proscriptions Many thousands of all Qualities and Ages and of both Sexes were Condemned without Citation or any sort of Evidence brought against them And whereas to give some Colour to so Barbarous a proceeding they had a day assigned them to come in after which the Attainder was to take place yet that none of them might be the better for the Orders were given and care was taken that no Man should come by the sight of it And every where Protestant Churches were taken from them by Force and given to Popish Priests by the Order or Connivance of the late King Yet all his was done in those parts of Ireland where the Protestants were very peaceable under him And now let the World judge whether these undeniable Matters of Fact be not a sufficient Cure for any English Protestants wishing to see him restored to a Power to do the like Mischiess here His Temper and Principles we see are the same they were in the height of his Attempts on our Religion and Liberty and if we put him into the same Circumstances we should soon feel the Effects of our Folly and his Revenge We agree with him that King Charles the first was ill treated to the great Scandal of that part of the Nation who were his Enemies Pag. 52. but when his Son saw how dire Effects a few stretches of the Prerogative and some groundless Fears of Popery had produced methinks he should not in the same Age have set up a more illegal High-Commission-Court nor openly declared himself a Romanist and against Law and Reason given all the best Places in England to those of that Perswasion Nor should he have Imprisoned or Fined Men contrary to Law nor committed more Outrages by his Army in times of Peace than have ever since been committed by a more numerous Army in time of War He therefore not King William is most concerned in that unhappy Precedent The kind Arguments which one of his Adversaries urged to convince the Non-swearing Protestants have an equal share of Logick and Truth for which cause this Author rather evades than answers them he brings in over again the Grants to the Scotch Plotters which were shewed before to be insignificant and at last passes his Word for his Master That he will be very kind to them at his Return and perswades them to believe all things and doubt nothing tho' Experience and Reason both shew there is no ground for