is not sufficient vvithout a further Supply to enable your Majesty to Speak or Act those things vvhich are desired by your People We humbly take leave to acquaint your Majesty that many of our Members being upon an expectation of an Adjournment before Easter are gone into their several Countries vve cannot think it Parliamentary in their absence to take upon us the granting of money but do therefore desire your Majesty to be pleased that this House may Adjourn it self for such short time before the sum of 200000 l. can be expended as your Majesty shall think sit and by your Royal Proclamation to command the attendance of all our Members at the day of Meeting by vvhich time vve hope your Majesty may have so formed your Affaires and fixed your Alliances in pursuance of our former Addresses that your Majesty may be gratiously pleased to Impart them to us in Parliament and vve no vvayes doubt but at our next Assembling your Majesty vvill not only meet vvith a Complyance in the Supply your Majesty desires but vvithall such farther Assistance as the posture of your Majesties Affaires shall require in confidence vvhereof vve hope your Majesty vvill be encouraged in the mean time to speak and act such things as your Majesty shall judge necessary for attaining those great ends as ye have formerly represented to your Majesty And now the money Bill being Passed both Houses and the French having by the surrender of Cambray also to them perfected the Conquest of this Campagne as was projected and the mony for further preparations having been asked onely to gain a pretence for refusing their Addresses the Houses were adjourned April the 16th till the 21 of May next And the rather becuase at the same moment of their rising a Grand French Ambassador was coming over For all things betwixt France and England moved with that punctual Regularity that it was like the Harmony of the Spheres so Consonant with themselves although we cannot hear the musick There landed immediately after the Recesse the Duke of Crequy the Arch-Bishop of Rheims Monsieur Barrillon and a Traine of three or four hundred persons of all Qualities so that the Lords Spirituall and Temporall of France with so many of their Commons meeting the King at Nevv-market it looked like another Parliament And that the English had been Adjourned in order to their better Reception But what Addresse they made to his Majesty or what Acts they passed hath not yet been Published But those that have been in discourse were An Act for continuing his Majesties subjests in the service of France An Act of abolition of all Claymes and demandes from the subjests of France on Account of all Prizes made of the English at Sea since the year 1674 till that day and for the future An Act for marring the Children of the Royal Family to Protestants Princes An Act for a further supply of French mony But because it appears not that all these and many others of more secret nature passed the Royall Assent it sufficeth thus far to have mentioned them Onely it is most certain that although the English Parliament was kept aloofe from the businesse of War Peace and Alliance as Improper for their Intermedling Presumptuous Yet with these 3 Estates of France all these things were Negotiated and transacted in the Greatest confidence And so they were Adjourned from Nevv-Market to London and there continued till the return of the English Parliament when they were dismissed home with all the signes and demonstrations of mutuall 〈◊〉 And for better Preparations at home before the Parliament met there was Printed a second Packet of Advice to the men of Shaftsbury the first had been sold up and down the Nation and Transmitted to Scotland where 300 of them were Printed at Edenburgh and 40 Copyes sent from thence to England fariely bound up and Guilded to shew in what great Estmiation it was in that kingdome But this the sale growing heavy was dispersed as a Donative all over England and it was an Incivilty to have enquired from whence they had it but it was a Book though it came from Hell that seemed as if it dropped from Heaven among men some Imagined by the weight and the wit of it that it proceeded from the Two Lords the Black and the White who when their care of the late Sitting was over had given themselves Caviere and after the Triumphs of the Tongue had Establish those Trophes of the Pen over their Imprisoned Adversaries But that had been a thing unworthy of the Frechvvellian Generosity or Trerisian Magnanimity And rather besits the mean malice of the same Vulgar Scribler hired by the Conspirators at so much a shâ—…t or for day wages and when that is spent he shall for lesse mony Blaspheme his God Revile his Prince and Belye his Country if his former Books have Omitted any thing of those Arguments and shall Curse his own Father into the Bargain Monday May 21. 1677. The Parliament met according to their late Adjornment on and from April 16th to May 21 1677. There was no speech from the King to the Parliament but in the House of Commons This Meeting was opened with a verball message from his Majesty delivered by Secretary Coventry wherein his Majesty acquainted the House that having according to their desire in their Answer to his late Message April 16th driected their Adjournment to this time because they did alledge it to be unparliamentary to grant Supplyes when the House was so thin in expectation of a speedy Adjournment and having also Issued out his Proclamation of summons to the end there might be a full House he did now expect they would forthwith enter upon the consideration of his last message and the rather because he did intend there should be a Recesse very quickly Upon this it was moved That the Kings last Message of April 16. And the Answer thereto should be Read and they were read accordingly Thereupon after a long silence a discourse began about their expectation and necessity of Alliances And particularly it was intimated that an Alliance with Holland was most expedient for that we should deceive our selves if we thought we could be defended otherwise we alone could not withstand the French his purse and power was too great Nor could the Dutch withstand him But both together might The general discourse was that they came with an expectation to have Allyances declared and if they were not made so as to be imparted they were not called or come to that purpose they desired and hoped to meet upon and if some few dayes might ripen them they would be content to Adjorn for the mean time The Secretary and others said these Allyances were things of great weight and 〈◊〉 and the time had been short but if they were finisht yet it was not convenient to publish them till the King was in a readinesse and posture to prosecute and maintain them till when his Majesty could
saith The Favour here proposed in behalf of the Romanists is not more than they injoy among Protestants abroad at this day This I take not to be true either in Denmark or Svveden and some other Countrys were Popery is wholly suppressed and therefore if that have been effected there in ways of prudence and consisting with Christianity it ought not to have been in so general words misrepresented Another is P. 59 and 60. a thing ill and dangerously said concluding I knovv but one Instance that of David in Gath of a man that vvas put to all these straits and yet not Corrupted in his principles When there was a more Illustrious Example near him and more obious What else I have to say in passing is as to the Ground-work of his whole design which is to bring men nearer as by a distinction betwixt the Church and Court of Rome a thing long attempted but ineffectually it being the same thing as to distinguish betwixt the Church of England and the English Bishops which cannot be seperated But the intention of the Author was doubtlesse very honest and the English of that Profession are certainly of all Papiest the most sincere and most worthy of favour but this seemed no proper time to negotiate further then the Publick Convenience There was another Book likewise that came out by Authority towards the Approach of the Session Intitled A Packet of Advise to the men of Shaftsbury c. But the name of the Author was concealed not out of any sparke of moModesty but that he might with more security excercise his Impudence not so much against those Noble Lords as against all Publick Truth and Honesty The whole composition is nothing else but an Infusion of Malice in the Froath of the Town and the Scum of the University by the Prescription of the Conspirators Nor therefore did the Book deserve naming no more then the Author but that they should rot together in their own Infamy had not the first events of the following Session made it remarkable that the Wizard dealt with some Superior Intelligence And on the other side some Scattering papers straggled out in Print as is usuall for the information of Parliament men in the matter of Law concerning Prorogation which all of them it is to be presumed understood not but was like to prove therefore a great Question As to matters abroad from the Year 1674 That the Peace was concluded betwixt England and Holland the French King as a mark of his displeasure and to humble the English Nation let Loose his Privateers among our Merchant men There was thenceforth no security of Commerce or Navigation notwithstanding the publick Amity betwixt the two Crowns but at Sea they Murthered Plundred made Prize and Confiscated those they met with Their Picaroons laid before the Mouth of our Rivers hoverd all along the Coast took our Ships in the very Ports that we were in a manner blocked up by Water And if any made application at his Soveraign Port for Justice they were insolently bassled except some sew that by Sir Ellis Leightous Interest who made a second prize of them were redeemed upon easier Composition In this manner it continued from 1674 till the latter end of 1676 without remedy even till the time of the Parliaments Sitting so that men doubted whether even the Conspirators were not Complices also in the matter and sound partly their own account in it For evidence of what is said formerly the Paper at the end of this Treatise annexed may serve returned by some Members of the Privy Council to his Majesties Order to which was also adjoyned a Register of so many of the English Ships as then came to notice which the French had taken and to this day cease not to treat our Merchants at the same rate And yet all this while that they made these intolerable and barbarous Piracyes and depredations upon his Majestyes Subjects from hence they were more deligently then ever supplied with Recruits and those that would go voluntarily into the French service were incouraged others that would not pressed imprisoned and carried over by maine force and constraint even as the Parliament here was ready to sit down notwithstanding all their former frequent applications to the Contrary And his Majesties Magazins were daily emptied to furnish the French with all sorts of Ammunition of which the following note containes but a small parcell in comparison of what was daily conveyed away under colour of Cockets for Jarsy and other places A short account of some Amunition c. Exported from the Port of London to France from June 1675. to June 1677. Granadoes without number Shipt off under the colour of unwroght Iron Lead Shot 21 Tuns Gunpovvder 7134 Barrels Iron Shot 18 Tun 600 Weight Matcb 88 Tun 1900 Weight Iorn Ordinance 441. Quantity 292 Tuns 900 Weight Carriages Bandileirs Pikes c. uncertain Thus was the French King to be gratified for undoing us by Sea with contributing all that we could rap and rend of Men or Amunition at Land to make him more potent against us and more formidable Thus are we at length arrived at this much controverted and as much expected Session And though the way to it hath proved much longer then was intended in the entry of this discourse yet is it very short of what the matter would have afforded but is past over to keep within bounds of this Volumn The 15th of February 1676 came and that very same day the French King appointed his March for Flanders It seemed that his motions were in Just Cadence and that as in a Grand Balet he kept time with those that were tuned here to his measure And he thought it a becoming Galanttrie to take the rest of Flanders our natural out work in the very face of the King of England and his Petites Maisons of Parliament His Majesty demanded of the Parliament in his Speech at the opening of the Sessions a Supply for building of Ships and the further continuance of the Additional Excise upon Beer and Ale which was to expire the 24th of June 1677 and recommended earnestly a good correspondence betvveen the tvvo Houses representing their last Differences as the reason of so long a Prorogation to allay them The Lord Chancellor as is usuall with him spoiled all which the King had said so well with straining to do it better For indeed the mischances of all the Sessions since he had the Seales may in great part be ascribed to his indiscreet and unlucky Eloquence And had not the Lord Treasure a farre more effectual way of Perswasion with the Commons there had been the same danger of the ill successe of this Meeting as of those formerly Each House being now seated the case of this long Prorogation had taken place so farre without doores and was of that consequence to the Constitution of all Parliaments and the Ualidity of all proceedings in this Session that even the Commons though sore
An Account of the GROWTH OF POPERY AND Arbitrary Government IN ENGLAND More Particularly from the Long Prorogation of November 1675 Ending the 15th of February 1676 till the Last Meeting of Parliament the 16th of July 1677. AMSTERDAM Printed in the Year 1677. An account of the Growth of POPERY and Arbitrary Government in England c. THere has now for diverse Years a design been carried on to change the Lawfull Government of England into an Absolute Tyranny and to convert the established Protestant Religion into down-right Popery than both which nothing can be more destructive or contrary to the Interest and Happinesse to the Constitution and Being of the King and Kingdom For if first we consider the State the Kings of England Rule not upon the same terms with those of our neighbour Nations who having by force or by adresse usurped that due share which their People had in the Government are now for some Ages in possession of an Arbitrary Power which yet no Presciption can make Legall and exercise it over their persons and estates in a most Tyrannical manner But here the Subjects retain their proportion in the Legislature the very meanest Commoner of England is represented in Parliament and is a party to those Laws by which the Prince is sworn to Govern himself and his people No Mony is to be levied but by the common consent No than is for Life Limb Goods or Liberty at the Soveraigns discretion but we have the same Right modestly understood in our Propriety that the Prince hath in his Regality and in all Cases where the King is concerned we have our just remedy as against any private person of the neighbourhood in the Courts of Westminster Hall or in the High Court of Parliament His very Prerogative is no more then what the Law has determined His Broad Seal which is the Legitimate stamp of his pleasure yet is no longer currant than upon the Trial it is found to be Legal He cannot commit any person by his particular warrant He cannot himself be witnesse in any cause the Ballance of Publick Justice being so dellicate that not the hand only but even the breath of the Prince would turn the scale Nothing is left to the Kings will but all is subjected to his Authority by which means it follows that he can do no wrong nor can he receive wrong and a King of England keeping to these measures may without arrogance be said to remain the onely Intelligent Ruler over a Rational People In recompense therefore and acknowledgment of so good a Government under his influence his Person is most sacred and inviolable and whatsoever excesses are committed against so high a trust nothing of them is imputed to him as being free from the necessity or temptation but his Ministers only are accountable for all and must answer it at their perills He hath a vast Revenue constantly arising from the Hearth of the Housholder the Sweat of the Laboures the Rent of the Farmer the Industry of the Merchant and consequently out of the Estate of the Gentleman a larg competence to defray the ordinary expense of the Crown and maintain its lustre And if any extraordinary occasion happen or be but with any probable decency pretended the whole Land at whatsoever season of the year does yield him a plentifull Harvest So forward are his Peoples affections to give even to superfluity that a Forainer or English man that hath been long abroad would think they could neither will nor chuse but that the asking of a supply were a meer formality it is so readily granted He is the Fountain of all Honours and has moreover the distribution of so many profitable Offices of the Houshold of the Revenue of State of Law of Religion of the Navy and since his persent Majesties time of the Army that it seems as if the Nation could scarse furnish honest men enow to supply all those imployments So that the Kings of England are in nothing inferiour to other Princes save in being more abridged from injuring their own subjects But have as large a field as any of external felicity wherein to exercise their own Virtue and so reward and incourage it in others In short there is nothing that comes nearer in Government to the Divine Perfection then where the Monarch as with us injoys a capacity of doing all the good imaginable to mankind under a disability to all that is evil And as we are thus happy in the Constitution of our State so are we yet more blessed in that of our Church being free from that Romish Yoak which so great a part of Christendome do yet draw and labour under That Popery is such a thing as cannot but for want of a word to express it be called a Religion nor is it to be mentioned with that civility which is otherwise decent to be used in speaking of the differences of humane opinion about Divine Matters Were it either open Judaisine or plain Turkery or honest Paganisme there is yet a certain Bona fides in the most extravagant Belief and the sincerity of an erroneous Profession may render it more pardonable but this is a compound of all the three an extract of whatsoever is most ridiculous and impious in them incorporated with more peculiar absurdityes of its own in which those were deficient and all this deliberately contrived knowingly carried on by the bold imposture of Priests under the name of Christianity The wisdom of this fifth Religion this last and insolentest attempt uppon the credulity of mankind seems to me though not ignorant otherwise of the times degrees and methods of its progresse principally to have consisted in their owning the Scriptures to be the word of God and the Rule of Faith and Manners but in prohibiting of the same time their common use or the reading of them in publick Churches but in a Latine translation to the vulgar there being no better or more rational way to frustrate the very design of the great Institutor of Christianity who first planted it by the extraordinary gift of Tongues then to forbid the use even of the ordinary languages For having thus a book which is universally avowed to be of Divine Authority but sequestring it only into such hands as were intrusted in the cheat they had the opportunity to vitiate suppresse or interpret to their own profit those Records by which the poor People hold their salvation And this necessary point being once gained there was thence forward nothing so monstrous to reason so abhorring from morality or so contrary to scripture which they might not in prudence adventure on The Idolatry for alas it is neither better nor worse of adoring and praying to Saints and Angels of worshipping Pictures Images and Reliques Incredible Miracles and plapable Fables to promote that veneration The whole Liturgy and Worship of the Blessed Virgin The saying of Pater Nosters and Creeds to the honour of Saints and of Ave Mary's too not
opposed any such pretension But some of them at last growing wiser by foisting a counterfeit Donation of Constantine and wresting another Donation from our Saviour advanced themselves in a weak ignorant and credulous Age to that Temporal and Spiritual Principality that they are now seised of Tues Petrus super hanc Petram adificabo Ecclesiam meam Never was a Bishop-prick and a Verse of Scripture so improved by good management Thus by exercising in the quality of Christs Uicar the publick function under an invisible Prince the Pope like the Maires of the Palace hath set his master aside and delivered the Government over to a new Line of Papal Succession But who can unlesse wilfully be ignorant what wretched doings what Bribery what Ambition there are how long the Church is without an Head upon every Vacancy till among the crew of bandying Cardinalls the Holy Ghost have declared for a Pope of the French or Spanish Faction It is a sucession like that of the Egyptian Ox the living Idol of that Country who dying or being made away by the Priests there was a solemn and general mourning for want of a Deity until in their Conclave they had found out another Beast with the very same marks as the former whom then they themselvs adored and with great Jubilee brought forth to the People to worship Nor was that Election a grosser reproach to human Reason then this is also to Christianity Surely it is the greatest Miracle of the Romish Church that it should still continue and that in all this time the Gates of Heaven should not prevaile against it It is almost unconceivable how Princes can yet suffer a Power so pernicious and Doctrine so destructive to all Government That so great a part of the Land should be alienated and condemned to as they call it Pious Uses That such millions of their People as the Clergy should by remaining unmarryed either frustrate humane nature if they live chastly or if otherwise adulterate it That they should be priviledged from all labour all publick service and exempt from the power of all Secular Jurisdiction That they being all bound by strict Oaths and Vows of Obedience to the Pope should evacuate the Fealty due to the Soveraign Nay that not only the Clergy but their whole People if of the Romish preswasion should be obliged to rebel at any time upon the Popes pleasure And yet how many of the Neighbouring Princes are content or do chuse to reign upon those conditions which being so dishonorable and dangerous surely some great and more weighty reason does cause them submit to Whether it be out of personal fear having heard perhaps of several attempts which the blind obedience of Popish Zelotes hath executed against their Princes Or whether aiming at a more absolute and tyrannical Government they think it still to be the case of Boniface and Phocas an usurping Emperour and an usurping Bishop and that as other Cheats this also is best to be managed by Confederacy But as farre as I can apprehend there is more of Sloth then Policy on the Princes side in this whole matter and all that pretense of inslaving men by the assistance of Religion more easily is neither more nor lesse then when the Bramine by having the first night of the Bride assures himself of her devotion for the future and makes her more fit for the husband This reflection upon the state of our Neighbours in aspect to Religion doth sufficiently illustrate our happinesse and spare me the labour of describing it further then by the Rule of Contraryes Our Church standing upon all points in a direct opposition to all the forementioned errours Our Doctrine being true to the Principles of the first Christian institution and Episcopacy being formed upon the Primitive Model and no Ecclesiastical Power jostling the Civil but all concurring in common obedience to the Soveraign Nor therefore is their any whether Prince or Nation that can with less probability be reduced back to the Romish perswasion than ours of England For if first we respect our Obedience to God what appearance is there that after so durable and general an enlightning of our minds with the sacred Truth we should again put out our own Eyes to wander thorow the palpable darkness of that gross Superstition But forasmuch as most men are less concern'd for their Interest in Heaven than on Earth this seeming the nearer and more certain on this account also our alteration from the Protestant Religion is the more impossible When beside the common ill examples and consequences of Popery observable abroad whereby we might grow wise at the expense of our Neighbours we cannot but reflect upon our own Experiments at home which would make even fools docible The whole Reign of Queen Mary in which the Papists made Fewel of the Protestants The Excommunicating and Deprivation of Queen Elizabeth by the Pope pursued with so many Treasons and attempts upon her Person by her own Subjects and the Invasion in Eighty-Eight by the Spanish The two Breves of the Pope in order to exclude King James from the Succession to the Crown seconded by the Gunpovvder-Treason In the time of his late Majesty King Charles the first besides what they contributed to the Civil War in England the Rebellion and horrid Massacre in Ireland and which was even worse than that their pretending that it was done by the Kings Commission and vouching the Broad Seal for their Authority The Popes Nuncio assuming nevertheless and exercising there the Temporal as well as Spiritual Power granting out Commissions under his own Hand breaking the Treatys of Peace between the King and as they then styled themselves the Confederate Catholicks heading two Armies against the Marquess of Ormond then Lord Lieutenant and forcing him at last to quit the Kingdom all which ended in the Ruine of his Majesties Reputation Government and Person which but upon occasion of that Rebellion could never have happened So that we may reckon the Reigns of our late Princes by a succession of the Popish Treasons against them And if under his present Majesty we have as yet seen no more visible effects of the same spirit than the Firing of London acted by Hubert hired by Pieddelou two French-men which remains a Controverfie it is not to be attributed to the good nature or better Principles of that Sect but to the wisdom of his Holyness who observes that we are not of late so dangerous Protestants as to deserve any special mark of his Indignation but that we may be made better use of to the weakning of those that are of our own Religion and that if he do not disturbe us there are those among our selves that are leading us into a fair way of Reconciliation with him But those continued fresh Instances in relation to the Crown together with the Popes claim of the Temporal and immediate Dominion of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland which he does so challenge are a
dealt with him in all things most frankly That notwithstanding all the Expressions in my Lord Keeper Bridgmans Speech of the Treaty betvveen France and his Majesty concerning Commerce vvherein his Majesty vvill have a singular regard to the Honour and also to the Trade of this Nation and notwithstanding the intollerable oppressions upon the English Traffick in France ever since the Kings Restauration they had not in all that time made one step towards a Treaty of Commerce or Navigation with him no not even now when the English were so necessary to him that he could not have begun this War without them and might probably therefore in this conjuncture have condescended to some equality But they knew how tender that King was on that point and to preserve and encrease the Trade of his Subjects and that it was by the Diminution of that Beam of his Glory that the Hollanders had raised his Indignation The Conspirators had therefore the more to gratify him made it their constant Maxime to burden the English Merchant here with one hand while the French should load them no less with the other in his Teritories which was a parity of Trade indeed though something an extravagant one but the best that could be hoped from the prudence and integrity of our States-men insomuch that when the Merchants have at any time come down from London to represent their grievances from the French to seek redress or offer their humble adviâ—…e they were Hector'd Brow-beaten Ridiculed and might have found fairer audience even from Monsieur Colbert They knew moreover that as in the matter of Commerce so they had more obliged him in this War That except the irresistable bounties of so great a Prince in their own particular and a frugal Subsistance-money for the Fleet they had put him to no charges but the English Navy Royal serv'd him like so many Privateers No Purchase No Pay That in all things they had acted with him upon the most abstracted Principles of Generosity They had tyed him to no terms had demanded no Partition of Conquests had made no humane Condition but had sold all to him for those two Pearls of price the True Worship and the True Government Which disinteressed proceeding of theirs though suited to Forraine Magnanimity yet should we still lose at Sea as we had hitherto and the French Conquer all at Land as it was in prospect might at one time or other breed some difficulty in answering for it to the King and Kingdom However this were it had so hapned before the arrival of the Plenipotentiaries that whereas here in England all that brought applycations from Holland were treated as Spies and Enemies till the French King should signify his pleasure he on the contrary without any communication here had received Addresses from the Dutch Plenipotentiaries and given in to them the sum of his Demands not once mentioning his Majesty or his Interest which indeed he could not have done unless for mockery having demanded all for himself so that there was no place left to have made the English any satisfaction and the French Ministers therefore did very candidly acquaint those of Holland that upon their accepting those Articles there should be a firm Peace and Amity restored But as for England the States their Masters might use their discretion for that France was not obliged by any Treaty to procure their advantage This manner of dealing might probably have animated as it did warrant the English Plenipotentiaries had they been as full of Resolution as of Power to have closed with the Dutch who out of aversion to the French and their intollerable demands were ready to have thrown themselves into his Majesties Armes or at his Feet upon any reasonable conditions But it wrought clean otherwise For those of the English Plenipotentiaries who were it seems intrusted with a fuller Authority and the deeper Secret gave in also the English Demands to the Hollanders consisting in eight Articles but at last the Ninth saith Although his Majesty contents himself vvith the foregoing Conditions so that they be accepted vvithin ten dayes after vvhich his Majesty understands himself to be no further obliged by them He declares nevertheless precisely that albeit they should all of them be granted by the said States yet they shall be of no force nor vvill his Majesty maâ—…e any Treaty of Peace or Truce unless the Most Christian King shall have received satisfastion from the said States in his particular And by this means they made it impossible for the Dutch however desirous to comply with England excluded us from more advantagious terms than we could at any other time hope for and deprived us of an honest and honourable evasion out of so pernicious a War and from a more dangerous Alliance So that now it appeared by what was done that the Conspirtors securing their own fears at the price of the Publick Interest and Safety had bound us up more strait then ever by a new Treaty to the French Project The rest of this year passed with great successe to the French but none to the English And therefore the hopes upon which the War was begun of the Smyrna and Spanish Fleet and Dutch Prizes being vanished the slender Allowance from the French not sufficing to defray it and the ordinary Revenue of the King with all the former Aides being as was fit to be believed in lesse then one years time exhausted The Parliament by the Conspirators good leave was admitted again to sit at the day appointed the 4th of February 1672. The Warr was then first communicated to them and the Causes the Necessity the Danger so well Painted out that the Dutch abusive Historical Pictures and False Medalls which were not forgot to be mentioned could not be better imitated or revenged Onely there was one great omission of their False Pillars which upheld the whole Fabrick of the England Declarations Upon this signification the House of Commons who had never failed the Crown hitherto upon any occosion of mutual gratuity did now also though in a Warre contrary to former usuage begun without their Advice readily Vote no less a summe than 1250000 l. But for better Colour and least they should own in words what they did in effect they would not say it was for the Warre but for the Kings Extraordinary Occasions And because the Nation began now to be aware of the more true Causes for which the Warre had been undertaken they prepared an Act before the Money-Bill slipt thorrow their Fingers by which the Papists were obliged to pass thorow a new State Purgatory to be capable of any Publick Imployment whereby the House of Commons who seem to have all the Great Offices of the Kingdom in Reversion could not but expect some Wind-falls Upon this Occasion it was that the Earl of Shaftsbury though then Lord Chancellour of England yet Engaged so far in Defence of that ACT and of the PROTESTANT RELIGION that in due
are Commissioned by him in pursuance of such Commission and yet neither is the Tenour or Rule of any such Commission specified nor the Qualification of those that shall be armed with such Commissions expressed or limited Never was so much sence contained in so few words No Conveyancer could ever in more Compendious or binding terms have drawn a Dissettlement of the whole Birth-right of England For as to the Commission if it be to take away any mans Estate or his Life by force Yet it is the Kings Commission Or if the Person Commissionate be under never so many Dissabilities by Acts of Parliament yet his taking this Oath removes all those Incapacities or his Commission makes it not Disputable But if a man stand upon his Defence a good Judge for the purpose finding that the Position is Traitorous will declare that by this Law he is to be Executed for Treason These things are no Nicetyes or remote Considerations though in making of Laws and which must come afterwards under Construction of Judges Durante Bene-placito all Cases are to be put and imagined but there being an Act in Scotland for Tvventy thousand Men to March into England upon Call and so great a Body of English Souldery in France within Summons besides what Forainers may be obliged by Treaty to furnish and it being so fresh in memory what sort of persons had lately been in Commission among us to which add the many Bookes then Printed by Licence Writ some by Men of the Black one of the Green Cloath wherein the Absoluteness of the English Monarchy is against all Law asserted All these Considerations put together were sufficient to make any honest and well-advised man to conceive indeed that upon the passing of this Oath and Declaration the vvhole sum of Affaires depended It grew therefore to the greatest contest that has perhaps ever been in Parliament wherein those Lords that were against this Oath being assured of their own Loyalty and Merit stood up now for the English Liberties with the same Genius Virtue and Courage that their Noble Ancestors had formerly defended the Great Charter of England but with so much greater Commendation in that they had here a fairer Field and the more Civil way of Decision They fought it out under all the disadvantages imaginable They were overlaid by Numbers the noise of the House like the VVind was against them and if not the Sun the Fire-side was allwayes in their Faces nor being so few could they as their Adversaries withdraw to refresh themselves in a whole days Ingagement Yet never was there a clearer Demonstration how dull a thing is humane Eloquence and Greatness how Little when the bright Truth discovers all things in their proper Colours and Dimensions and shining shoots its Beams thorow all their Fallacies It might be injurious where all of them did so excellently well to attribute more to any one of those Lords than another unless because the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Shaftsbury have been the more reproached for this brave Action it be requisite by a double proportion of Praise to set them two on equal terms with the rest of their Companions in Honour The particular Relation of this Debate which lasted many dayes with great eagerness on both sides and the Reasons but on one was in the next Session burnt by Order of the Lords but the Sparkes of it will eterually fly in their Adversaries faces Now before this Test could in so vigorous an opposition passe the House of Peers there arose unexpectedly a great Controversy betwixt the two Houses concerning their Priviledges on this occasion The Lords according to their undoubted Right being the Supream Court of Judicature in the Nation had upon Petition of Doctor Shirley taken cognizance of a Cause between him and Sir John Fagg a Member of the House of Commons and of other Appeales from the Court of Chancery which the Commons whether in good earnest which I can hardly believe or rather some crafty Parliament men among them having an eye upon the Test and to prevent the hazard of its coming among them presently took hold of and blew the Coales to such a degree that there was no quenching them In the House of Peers both Partyes as in a point of their own Privilege easily united and were no lesse inflamed against the Commons and to uphold their own ancient Jurisdiction wherein neverthelesse both the Lords for the Test and those against it had their own particular reasons and might have accused each-other perhaps of some artifice The matter in conclusion was so husbanded on all sides that any longer converse betwixt the two Houses grew impracticable and his Majesty Prorogued them therefore till the 13th of October 1675 following And in this manner that fatall Test which had given so great disturbance to the mindes of our Nation dyed the second Death which in the language of the Divines is as much as to say it was Damned The House of Commons had not in that Session been wanting to Vote 300000 l. towards the building of Ships and to draw a Bill for appropriating the Ancient Tunnage and Poundage amounting to 400000 l. yearly to the use of the Navy as it ought in Law already and had been granted formerly upon that special Trust and Confidence but neither did that 300000 l. although Competent at present and but an earnest for future meeting seem considerable and had it been more yet that Bill of appropriating any thing to its true use was a sufficient cause to make them both miscarry but upon pretense of the quarrel between the Lords and Commons in which the Session thus ended The Conspirators had this interval to reflect upon their own affaires They saw that the King of France as they called him was so busy abroad that he could not be of farther use yet to them here then by his directions while his Armyes were by assistance of the English Forces severall times saved from ruines They considered that the Test was defeated by which the Papists hoped to have had Reprisalls for that of Transubstantiation and the Conspirators to have gained Commission as extensive and arbitrary as the malice of their own hearts could dictate That herewith they had missed of a Legality to have raised mony without Consent of Parliament or to imprison or execute whosoever should oppose them in pursuance of such their Commission They knew it was in vaine to expect that his Majesty in that want or rather opinion of want which they had reduced him to should be diverted from holding this Session of Parliament nor were they themselves for this once wholy averse to it For they presumed either way to find their own account that if mony were granted it should be attributed to their influence and remaine much within their disposal but if not granted that by joyning this with other accidents of Parliament they might so represent things to his Majesty as to incense him against them
for the supplying of the said Vacancy and to be placed in such Order as the said Prelates so assembled or the major part of them shall think fit without regard to dignity antiquity or any other form which Writing shall be presented to the King who may thereupon appoint one of the three persous so to be named to succeed in the said Vacancy And the person so appointed or chosen shall by due form of Law according to the course now used be made Bishop of that See But if in 30 days after such presentment of such Names the King or Queen Regnant shall not Elect or appoint which of the said three persons shall succeed in the said vacant See or if after such Election or appointment there shall be any obstruction in pressing of the usual Instruments and formalities of Law in order to his Consecration then such person whose Name shall be first written in the said Instrument of nomination if there be no Election or appointment made by the King within the time aforesaid shal be the Bishop of the vacant See And if there be an Election or appointment made then the person so appointed shall be the Bishop of the vacant See And the Arch-bishop of the Province wherein the said vacancy shall be or such other person or persons who ought by his Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws to Consecrate the said Bishop shall upon reasonable demand and are hereby required to make Consecration accordingly upon pain of forfeiting trebble damages and costs to the party grieved to be recovered in any of his Majesties Courts at Westminster And immediately after such Consecration the person so consecrated shall be and is hereby Enacted to be compleat Bishop of the said vacant See and is hereby vested in the Temporalties of the said Bishop-prick and in actual possession thereof to all intents and purposes and shall have a Seat and Place in Parliament as if he had by due forms of Law been made Bishop and had the Temporalities restored unto him And in case the person so first named in the said Instrument of nomination or the person so Elected by the King or Queen Regnant shall then be a Bishop so that no Consecration be requisite then immediately after default of Election or appointment by the King or immediately after such Election or appointment if any shall be made within the said time and any Obstructions in pressing the Instruments and Formalities in Law in such cases used the Bishop so first Named or Elected and appointed shall thereupon ipso facto be translated and become Bishop of that See to which he was so nominated and appointed and shall be and is hereby vested in the Temporalties and actual possession thereof to all intents and purposes and shall have his Seat and Place in Parliament accordingly and his former See shall become vacant as if he had been by due Forms of Law chosen and confirmed into the same and had the Temporalities restored unto him And be it further Enacted That until the making the said Oath and Declaration in manner aforesaid the respective succeeding Kings and Queens that shall not have made and subscribed the same shall not grant or dispose of any Denary or Arch-Deconary Prebendary Mastership of any Colledge Parsonage Viccarage or any Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion whatsoever to any other person but such person as shall be nominated for the same unto the said King or Queen Regnant by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury or Guardians of the Spiritualities of the said Arch-bishop-prick for the time being if the same be within the Province of Canterbury and by the Arch-bishop-prick of York or Guardians of the spiritualities of the said Arch-bishop-prick for the time being if the same be within the Province of York by writing under their respective Hands and Seals and in case any such as shall be accordingly nominated shall not be able to obtein Presentation or grant thereof within 30 dayes next after such nomination then the said person shall and may and is hereby enabled by force of the said nomination to require Institution and Induction from such person and persons unto whom it shall belong to grant the same who shall accordingly make Institution and Induction as if the said person were lawfully presented by the said King or Queen Regnant upon pain to forfeit to the party grieved trebble damages and costs to be recovered in any of his Majesties Courts at VVestminster and in cases where no Institution or Induction is requisite the said person so nominated from and after the end of the said 30 dayes shall be and is hereby actually vested in the possession of such Denary Arch-Deaconary Prebendary Mastership Rectory Parsonage or Vicarage Donative or other Ecclefiastical Benefice or Promotion and shall be full and absolute proprietor and Incumbent thereof to all Intents and Purposes as if he had obteyned possession therof upon a legall grant by the said King or Queen Regnant and proceeding thereupon in due form of Law Provided always and be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That it shall and may be lawful for the Lord High Chancellor of England or the Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England for the time being to pass presentations or grants to any Ecclesiastical Benefice under value in the Kings Gift in such manner as hath been accustomed any thing in this present Act to the contrary notwithstanding And be it further Enacted That during such time as any King or Queen Regnant shall be under the said fourteen yeares no person that shall be Lord Protector or Regent of this Realme During such minority shall in any wise either in the name of the King or Queen Regnant or in his own name grant confer or dispose of any Arch-Bishop-prick Bishoprik Deanary Prebendary Master-ship of any Colledge Personage Vicarage or other Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion whatsoever but the same shall be disposed of in manner above mentioned during such miniority untill such Lord Protector or Regent shall make and subscribe the said Oath and Declaration mutatis mutandis before such nine or more of the said Prelates as he shall call to Administer the same unto him which Oath and Declaration they are hereby Authorized and required to Administer under the penaltyes aforesaid when they shall be called thereunto by such Lord Protector or Regent for the time being And be it further Enacted That the Children of such succeeding King or Queen Regnant that shall not have made and subscribed the Oath and Declaration in manner aforsaid shall from their respective Ages of seven years untill the respective Ages of fourteen yeares to be under the care and goverment of the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York and Bishop of London Durham and VVinchester for the time being who are hereby enjoyned and required to take care that they be well instructed and Educated in the true Protestant Religion as it is now Established by Law and to the Intent that the Arch-Bishops and Bishops for the time being
of France But a Fleet would protect our whole Ships are the defence of an Island and thereby we may hope to keep at a distance and not apprehend or prepare to meet him at our Dores he Learns by Sicily what it is to Invade an Island he is not like to attempt an Invasion of us till he hath some Masterie at Sea which is Impossible for him to have so long as he is diverted and imployed at Land in the Mediterranean and in the West Indies as he is And as to our Merchants Ships and Goods they are in no more danger now then they were in any War whensoever Nay there was more expectation of this then there was of the last VVar for the first notice we or the Dutch had of that Breach was the Attempt upon their Smyrna Fleet. Also it is observed that what was said a fortnight ago that the season was too far advanced to lay in Beâ—…f and it would stink was admitted to be a mistake for that now it was urged that a greater and better appointed Fleet must be furnished out but still it was insisted on that they were in the dark his Majesty did not speak out that he would make the desired Alliances against the growth of France and resolve with his Parliament to maintain them and so long as there was any coldness or reservedness of this kind they had no clear grounds to grant money for preparations His Majesty was a Prince of that Goodness and â—…are towards his People that none did distrust him but there was a distrust of some of his Ministers and a Jealousie that they were under French Influences and Complaints and Addresses had been made against them and upon the discourse of providing for the safety of the Nation it being said we might be secured by the Guarranty of the General Peace it was reflected on as a thing most pernitious to us and that our money and endeavours could not be worse applied than to procure that Peace Articles are not to be relied on All that they desired was that his Majesty and his People Unanimously Truly Sincerely and Throughly declare and engage in this business with a mutual confidence speaking out on both sides and this and nothing but this would discharge and extinguish all jealousies But it was Objected It was not convenient to discover his Majesties secret purposes in a Publick Assembly it might be too soon known abroad and there was no reason to distrust his Majesty but that being enabled he would prepare and do all things expedient for the Kingdom It was answered That it was usual for Forraine Ministers to get notice of the Councils of Princes as the Earl of Bristol Ambassador in Spain in the last part of King James's Reign procured Coppies and often the sight of the Originals of of Dispatches and Cabinet papers of the King of Spain But acknowledging that his Majesties Councels cannot be penetrated by the French yet the things would in a short time discover themselves besides they said they did not much desire secresy for let the King take a great Resolution and put himself at the Head of his Parliament and People in this weighty and worthy Cause of England and let a flying Post carry the news to Paris and let the French King do his worst His Majesty never had nor never will have cause to distrust his People In 1667 in confidence of our Aid he made a League without advice of Parliament commonly called the Tripple League which was for the Interest of England and whereby his Majesty became the Arbiter of Cristendom and in the Name and upon the Account of that the Parliament gave him several Supplies In 1672 He made War without the Advice of Parliament whith War the Parliament thought not for the Interest of England to continue yet even therein they would not leave him but gave him 1200000 l. to carry himself on out of it How much more are they concerned and obliged to supply and assist him in these Alliances and War if it ensue which are so much for the Interest of England and entered into by the pressing Advice of Parliament We hope his Majesty will declare himself in earnest and we are in earnest having his Majesties heart with us Let his hand Rot off that is not stretcht out for this Affair we will not stick at this or that sum or thing but we will go with his Majesty to all Extremities We are now affraid of the French King because he has great force and extraordinary thinking men about him which mannage his affaires to a wonder but we trust his Majesty will have his Business mannaged by thinking men that will be provident and careful of his Interest and not suffer him to pay Cent. per Cent. more than the things are worth that are taken up and used and if the work be entred upon in this manner we hope England will have English success with France as it is in Bowling if your Bowl be well set out you may think and it will go to the Mark. Were the thing clear and throughly undertaken there would be less reason to dispute of time there never was a Council but would sit on Sunday or any day for such Publick Work In fine they said the business must lye at one door or another and they would not for any thing that it should flat in their hands And although they should hope in an Exigence his Majesty would lend to his People who had given so much to him yet they said they could not leave him without providing him a sum of money as much as he could use between this and some convenient time after Easter when he might if he please command their full attendance by some publick Notification and this was the mentioned sum of 200000 l. The Expedient they provided for doing this was adding a Borrowing Clause to the Bill for almost 600000 l. such an one as was in the Poll Bill the Effect of which is to enable his Majesty presently to take up on the Credit of this Bill 200000 l. ready money at 7 l. per Cent. per annum Interest And this they said might now be done though the Bill were passed by them and also save that they had made the above mentioned amendment by the Lords for that Poll Bill was explained by another Act passed a few days after in the same session But in Hackvvells Modus tenendi Parli pag. 173 was a more remarkable President and exact in the Point But after some Discourse of setting loose part of this 600000 l. c. they reflected that this 600000 l. c. was appropriate for the building of Ships and they would not have this appropriation unhinged by any means and thereupon resolved to annex the borrowing Clause to the Bill for continuing the additional duty of Excise for three years which was not yet passed against which it was Objected That it was given for other purposes viz. to give the
put for agreeing with their Committee this Address which passed in the Affirmative without Division of the House Then it was Ordered That those Members of the House who were of his Majestys Privy Counsel should move his Majesty to know his pleasure when the House might wait upon him with their Address Mr. Povvle reported from the Committee Amendments to the Bill for Recalling his Majestys Subjects out of the French Kings Service which were Read and Agreed to by the House and the Bill with the Amendments Ordered to be Ingrossed And then the House Adjourned to the morrow Saturday May 26 1677 in the morn The House being sate had notice by Secretary Coventry That the King would receive their Address at three in the afternoon The Bill for Recalling his Majesties Subjects c. being then Ingrossed was Read the Third time and Passed The effect of the Bill in short was this That all and every of the Natural born Subjects of his Majesty who should continue or be after the first of August next in the Military Service of the French King should be disabled to inherit any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments and be uncapable of any Gift Grant or Legacy or to be Executor or Administrator and being convicted should be adjudged guilty of Felony without benefit of the Clergy and not pardonable by his Majesty his Heirs or Successors except only by Act of Parliament wherein such Offenders should be particularly named The like appointment for such as should continue in the Sea-service of the French King after the first of May 1678. This Act as to the prohibiting the offence and incurring the penalties to continue but for two years but the executeing and proceeding upon it for Offences against the Act might be at any time aswell after as within the two years Then it was Ordered that Mr. Povvle should carry up this Bill to the Lords and withall should put the Lords in mind of a Bill for The better suppressing the grovvth of Popery which they had sent up to their Lordships before Easter which was forth with done accordingly As soon as this was ordered several other Bills were moved for to be Read c. But the Members generally said No. They vvould proceed on nothing but the French and Popery So they Adjourned to the afternoon when they attended the King with their Address at the Banqueting House in White-Hall Which being presented The King Answered That it was long and of great importance that he would consider of it and give them an Answer as soon as he could The House did nothing else but Adjourn till Monday morn Monday May 28 1677. The House being sate they received notice by Secretary Coventry that the King expected them immediately at the Banqueting-House Whether being come The King made a Speech to them on the Subject of their Address Which Speech to prevent mistakes his Majesty read out of his Paper and then delivered the same to the Speaker And his Majesty added a few words about their Adjournment The Kings Speech is as followeth Gentlemen Could I have been Silent I vvould rather have chosen to be so then to call to mind things so unfit for you to meddle vvith as are contained in some parts of your last Addresses vvherein you have entrenched upon so undoubted a Right of the Crovvn that I am confident it vvill appear in no Age vvhen the Svvord vvas not dravvn that the Prerogative of making Peace and War hath been so dangerously invaded You do not content your selves vvith desiring Me to enter into such Leagues as may be for the safety of the Kingdome but you tell Me vvhat sort of Leagues they must be and vvith vvhom and as your Addresse is vvorded it is more liable to be understood to be by your Leave then at your Request that I should make such other Alliances as I please vvith other of the Confederates Should I suffer this fundamental Povver of making Peace and War to be so far invaded though but once as to have the manner and circumstances of Leagues prescribed to Me by Parliament it 's plain that no Prince or State vvould any longer believe that the Soveraignty of England rests in the Crovvn Nor could I think My Self to signifie any more to Foreign Princes then the empty Sound of a King Wherefore you may rest assured that no Condition shall make Me depart from or lessen so essential a part of the Monarchy And I am vvilling to believe so vvell of this House of Commons that I am confident these ill Consequences are not intended by you These are in short the Reasons vvhy I can by no means approve of your Address and yet though you have declined to grans Me that Supply vvhich is necessary to the Ends of it I do again declare to you That as I have done all that lay in my povver since your last Meeting so I vvill still apply my self by all the means I â—…an to let the World see my Care both for the Security and Satisfaction of my People although it may not be vvith those Advantages to them vvhich by your Assistances I might have procured And having said this he signified to them that they should Adjourn till the 16th of July Upon hearing of this Speech read their House is said to have been greatly appalled both in that they were so severely Checked in his Majesties name from whom they had been used to receive so constant Testimones of his Royal Bounty and Affection which they thought they had deserved as also because there are so many Old and fresh Presidents of the same Nature and if there had not yet they were led into this by all the stepps of Necessity in duty to his Majesty and the Nation And several of them offering therefore modestly to have spoken they were interrupted continually by the Speaker contesting that after the Kings pleasure signified for Adjornment there was no further Liberty of speaking And yet it is certain that at the same time in the Lords House the Adjournment was in the 〈◊〉 forme and upon the Question first propounded to that House and allowed by them All Adjournments unlesse made by speciall Commission under his Majesties Broad Seal being and having alwaies been so an Act of the Houses by their own Authority Neverthelesse several of their Members requiring to be heard the Speaker had the confidence without any Question put and of his own motion to pronounce the House Adjourned till the 16th of July and sâ—…pt down in the middle of the floor all the House being astonished at so unheard of a violation of their inherent Priviledge and Constitution And that which more amazed them afterwards was that while none of their own transactions or Addresses for the Publick Good are suffered to be Printed but even all Written Coppies of them with the same care as Libells suppressed Yet they found this severe speech published in 〈◊〉 next days News Book to mark them out to their own and all
sufficient caution to the Kings of England and of the People there is as little hopes to seduce them the Protestant Religion being so interwoven as it is with their Secular Interest For the Lands that were formerly given to superstitious uses having first been applyed to the Publick Revenue and afterwards by severall Alienations and Contracts distributed into private possession the alteration of Religion would necessarily introduce a change of Property Nullum tempus occurrit Ecelesiae it would make a general Earth-quake over the nation and even now the Romish Clergy on the other side of the water snuffe up the savoury odour of so many rich Abbies and Monasteries that belonged to their predecessors Hereby no considerably Estate in England but must have a piece torn out of it upon the Titile of Piety and the rest subject to be wholly forfeited upon the account of Heresy Another Chimny mony of the old Peter pence must again be payed as tribute to the Pope beside that which is established on his Majesty and the People instead of those moderate Tithes that are with too much difficulty payed to their Protestant Pastors will be exposed to all the exactions of the Court of Rome and a thousand artifices by which in former times they were used to draine away the wealth of ours more then any other Nation So that in conclusion there is no English-man that hath a Soul a Body or an Estate to save that Loves either God his King or his Country but is by all those Tenures bound to the best of his Power and Knowledge to maintaine the established Protestant Religion And yet all this notwithstanding there are those men among us who have undertaken and do make it their businesse under so Legal and perfect a Government to introduce a French slavery and instead of so pure a Religion to establish the Roman Idolatry both and either of which are Crimes of the Highest nature For as to matter of Government if to murther the King be as certainly it is a Fact so horred how much more hainous is it to assassinate the Kingdome And as none will deny that to alter our Monarchy into a Commonvvealth were Treason so by the same Fundamenttal Rule the Crime is no lesse to make that Monarchy Absolute What is thus true in regard of the State holds as well in reference to our Religion Former Parliaments have made it Treason in whosoever shall attempt to seduce any one the meanest of the Kings subjects to the Church of Rome And this Parliament hath to all penalties by the Common or Statute Law added incapacity for any man who shall presume to say that the King is a Papist or an Introducer of Popery But what lawless and incapable miscreants then what wicked Traytors are those wretched men who endevour to pervert our whole Church and to bring that about in effect which even to mention is penal at one Italian stroke attempting to subvert the Government and Religion to kill the Body and damn the Soul of our Nation Yet were these men honest old Cavaliers that had suffered in his late Majesties service it were allowable in them as oft as their wounds brake out at Spring or Fall to think of a more Arbitrary Government as a soveraign Balsom for their Aches or to imagine that no Weapon-salve but of the Moss that grows on an Enemies Skul could cure them Should they mistake this Long Parliament also for Rebells and that although all Circumstances be altered there were still the same necessity to fight it all over again in pure Loyalty yet their Age and the Times they have lived in might excuse them But those worthy Gentlemen are too Generous too good Christians and Subjects too affectionate to the good English Government to be capable of such an Impression Whereas these Conspiratours are such as have not one drop of Cavalier Blood or no Bovvels at least of a Cavalier in them but have starved them to Revel and Surfet upon their Calamities making their Persons and the very Cause by pretending to it themselves almost Ridiculous Or were these Conspiratours on the other side but avowed Papists they were the more honest the less dangerous and the Religion were answerable for the Errours they might commit in order to promote it Who is there but must acknowledge if he do not commend the Ingenuity or by what better Name I may call it of Sir Thomas Strickland Lord Bellassis the late Lord Clifford and others eminent in their several stations These having so long appeared the most zealous Sons of our Church yet as soon as the late Test against Popery was inacted tooke up the Crosse quitted their present imployments and all hopes of the future rather then falsify their opinion though otherwise men for Quality Estate and Abilityes whether in Warre or Peace as capable and well deserving without disparagement as others that have the art to continue in Offices And above all his Royal Highnesse is to be admired for his unparallelled magnanimity on the same account there being in all history perhaps no Record of any Prince that ever changed his Religion in his circumstances But these persons that have since taken the worke in hand are such as ly under no temptation of Religion secure men that are above either Honour or Consciencs but obliged by all the most sacred tyes of Malice and Ambition to advance the ruine of the King and Kingdome and qualified much better then others under the name of good Protestants to effect it And because it was yet difficult to find Complices enough at home that were ripe for so black a desing but they wanted a Back for their Edge therefore they applyed themselves to France that King being indowed with all those qualityes which in a Prince may passe for Virtues but in any private man would be capital and moreover so abounding in wealth that no man else could go to the price of their wickednesse To which Considerations adding that he is the Master of Absolute Dominion the Presumptive Monarch of Christendom the declared Champion of Popery and the hereditary natural inveterate Enemy of our King and Nation he was in all respects the most likely of all Earthly Powers to reward and support them in a Project every way suitable to his one Inclination and Interest And now should I enter into a particular retaile of all former and latter Transactions relating to this affaire there would be sufficient for a just Volume of History But my intention is onely to write a naked Narrative of some the most considerable passages in the meeting of Parliament the 15 of Febr. 1676. Such as have come to my notice which may serve for matter to some stronger Pen and to such as have more leisure and further opportunity to discover and communicate to the Publick This in the mean time will by the Progresse made in so few weeks demonstrate at what rate these men drive over the necks of King