upon your Head the Crown may long Flourish FINIS Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswel THE Case of Allegiance in our present Circumstances considered in a Letter from a Minister in the City to a Minister in the Country A Sermon preached at Fulham in the Chappel of the Palace upon Easter-Day 1689 at the Consecration of the Right Reverend Father in God Gilbert Lord Bishop of Sarum By Anthony Horneck D. D. The Judgments of God upon the Roman Catholick Church from its first rigid Laws for universal Conformity to it unto its last End. VVith a prospect of these near approaching Revolutions viz. The Revival of the Protestant Profession in an eminent Kingdom where it was totally suppressed The last End of all Turkish Hostilities The general Mortification of the Power of the Roman Church in all parts of its Dominions In Explication of the Trumpets and Vials of the Apocalypse upon Principles generally acknowledged by Protestant Interpreters By Drue Cressener D. D. A Breviate of the State of Scotland in its Government Supream Courts Officers of State Inferiour Officers Offices and Inferiour Courts Districts Jurisdictions Burroughs Royal and Free Corporations Fol. Some Considerations touching Succession and Allegiance 4 to A Discourse concerning the Worship of Images preached before the University of Oxford By George Tully Sub-Dean of York for which he was suspended Reflections upon the late Great Revolution Written by a Lay-Hand in the Country for the satisfaction of some Neighbours The History of the Dissertion or an Account of all the publick Affairs in England from the beginning of September 1688. to the Twelfth of February following With an Answer to a Piece call'd the Dissertion discussed in a Letter to a Country-Gentleman By a Person of Quality K. William and K. Lewis wherein is set forth the inevitable necessity these Nations lie under of submitting wholly to one or other of these Kings And that the matter in Controversy is not now between K. William and K. James but between K. William and K. Lewis of France for the Government of these Nations An Examination of the Scruples of those who refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance by a Divine of the Church of England A Dialogue betwixt two Friends a Jacobite and a Williamite occasioned by the late Revolution of Affairs and the Oath of Allegiance Two Sermons one against Murmuring the other against Censuring By Symon Patrick D. D. An Account of the Reasons which induced Charles the Second King of England to declare War against the States General of the United Provinces in 1672. And of the Private League which he entred into at the same Time with the French King to carry it on and to establish Popery in England Scotland and Ireland as they are set down in the History of the Duten War printed in French at Paris with the Priviledg of the French King 1682. Which Book he caused to be immediately suppress'd at the Instance of the English Ambassador Fol. An Account of the Private League betwixt the late King James the Second and the French King. Fol. The Case of Oaths Stated 4 to The Answer of a Protestant Gentleman in Ireland to a late Popish Letter of N. N. upon a Discourse between them concerning the present Posture of that Countrey and the Part fit for those concern'd there to act in it 4 to An Apology for the Protestants of Ireland in a brief Narrative of the late Revolutions in that Kingdom and an Account of the present State thereof By a Gentleman of Quality 4 to A Letter from a French Lawyer to an English Gentleman upon the Present Revolution 4 to Mr. Wake 's Sermon before the King and Queen at Hampton-Court His Fast-Sermon before the House of Commons June 5. 1689. Dr. Tennison's Sermon against Self-love before the House of Commons June 5. 1689. Mr. Tully's Sermon of Moderation before the Lord-Mayor May 12. 1689. A Letter written by the Emperor to the late King James setting forth the true Occasion of his Fall and the Treachery and Cruelty of the French. The Resolution of the Electors and the Princes of the Empire February 11. 1689. Containing the Reasons of their Declaring War against France Together with the Emperor's Concurrence with them in it and approving the same An Account of the late Revolution in New-England Together with the Declaration of the Gentlemen Merchants and Inhabitants of Boston and the Country adjacent April 18. 1689. Written by Mr. Nathanael Byfield a Merchant of Bristol in New-England to his Friends in London A Declaration of his Electoral Highness the Duke of Brandenburgh concerning the present War with France Directing his Subjects and Vassals and all other His Dependants how they are to demean themselves in their Trading Negotiation and all incident Occasions during the present War. As also a Letter sent from the Imperial Diet at Ratisbon to the Thirteen Cantons In Switzerland March 7. 1689. Exhorting hem to adhere to his Imperial Majesty and the Princes of the Empire in the present War against France
THE ADVANTAGES OF THE PRESENT SETTLEMENT AND THE GREAT DANGER OF A RELAPSE LICENSED July 4. 1689. J. Fraser LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXIX THE ADVANTAGES OF THE Present SETTLEMENT c. THE wonderful Revolution that hath fallen out in the Island of Great Britain since September last 1688. is justly at present the discourse and amazement of all Europe but chiefly in the three Kingdoms of Scotland England and Ireland whose Inhabitants are the Parties most concerned in it and no wonder since a greater Deliverance more unexpected and that hath plainer Characters of a Divine Contrivance and Conduct hath neither been heard of nor seen in any place of the World in any of the former Ages of it But there is a greater Wonder now to be observed amongst us than the Deliverance we have received if any thing can be greater viz. That there are many of us who seem to be much discontented with it and express themselves in such a manner as if they were offended with Heaven it self for being so propitious to us and seem ungratefully to envy his Honour whom God made the great Instrument of our Deliverance Strange that another Change should come under the desires of reasonable men which must of absolute necessity occasion a fatal Relapse into the same Miseries we were so deeply plunged and likewise occasion the inevitable and lasting ruine not only of our potent Deliverer but also of all those Royal Branches of the Royal Family in whose prosperity all the hopes of England's Happiness are certainly reposed While I frequently hear such Murmurings and Whisperings as tend to such a fatal End I cannot but be surprized both with astonishment and grief astonishment it being wonderful men should be displeased with their own Safety and Happiness and grief it being easie to apprehend those ill Consequences to the Publick that usually attend such Discontents and undutiful Murmurings so maliciously and industriously promoted And though I am very sensible of my own utter unfitness for so great an undertaking as the allaying of those Heats and Animosities that so much disturb the quietness and peace we have in our hands if we would but embrace it and be contented to enjoy it yet I hope I shall be forgiven of all even of those who perhaps may have an aversion to this Discourse for the very sincerity of my Intention for the Author assures his Reader that his Condition is so obscure his Acquaintance in the World so narrow and as you will easily perceive by this Pamphlet both as to the matter and style of it which falls so much below the dignity of the Subject and is so rude and unpolisht his Habitation is somewhat solitary and in a manner rural and thereforefore it cannot be imagined that Self-interest should share in his Design no suffer him only quietly to put in his poor mite into the Treasury and if he in any measure contribute to the Publick Peace and Happiness of that Church of which he glories to be a Member even that of England as it is now by Law established and of that Kingdom which he accounts it the greatest part of his civil happiness to be a Subject in he is sufficiently satisfied which design he is sure no man can possibly blame I would therefore as an Introduction to what follows ask but this question of those Persons that seem so discontented with our present Tranquility Gentlemen what is it you would be at what do you desire If they speak plainly and give a round answer to this question it must be this We would have King WILLIAM and Queen MARY dethroned again and have them either voluntarily to return back from whence they came or else to be sent back again by force we would have King JAMES the Second restored to his Crown and Dignity and reinstated in his Throne and Government This must be the Answer or else I cannot imagine what some men keep such a noise for Fair and soft Sirs This is a demand of the greatest consequence and importance that ever England heard I assure you it 's not likely to be yielded to without very mature and serious deliberation and I am very confident would men suffer their Reason to act freely without the strong Biass of Interest or Passion they would see it as unfit to be asked as they certainly must despair of having it granted For upon the whole the yielding to the Proposal would be a fatal Relapse into all those Miseries under which we so lately groaned and as it is in the case of a Relapse into the same Distempers from which Patients seemed almost to be freed their last condition is much more dangerous than their first so undoubtedly it would be with us And this will the more clearly appear upon a serious consideration of these three things 1. What condition we were in before the happy arrival of their present Majesties 2. What condition we are now in by this happy Revolution 3. What a miserable condition we must of necessity fall into upon such a second Revolution as would satisfy some mens desires As to the first of these it 's to be hoped that you will not take it ill if upon your proposal we make a review of that state you would reduce us to I assure you we are as sorry even for King JAMES's sake that the reflection is so unpleasant as possibly you can be yet if we find it to be a miserable Condition you will I hope excuse us if we be not willing desperately to rush our selves into it again Now I know not what in all the World is dear to a reasonable Creature that was not as our Circumstances were in the greatest hazard of being utterly lost For what is it that is most dear to us as Christians Religion What is most dear to us as English men The enjoyment of our Liberties and Properties secured to us by the Laws of the Land. What is most dear to us as individual single persons The safety and protection of our Lives Persons and Families Now I dare appeal to all unprejudiced men whether in any Nation under Heaven that was so firmly in the possession of all these as we were a few years ago they were ever in greater danger of being utterly lost than they were here in England so that the preservation of them is next to a Miracle That there was a Design to subvert the established Religion of this Church and Kingdom I hope no man will so much as question King JAMES did quickly let us see what was so much feared by many before he came to the Crown That it was great folly to imagine that a Prince so great a Zealot for his own Persuasion would not think it his Duty to use that Power God had given him to the promoting of that Religion he was so Zealous for which could never be without the Extirpation of the Established Religion accounted by him
a Pestilent Heresie To this end tended the Erecting of Chappels for Popish Devotion and Publick Schools for Popish Education Was it for nothing that an Ambassador was resident at Rome And a Nuncio publickly entertained here for a constant Correspondence between England and Rome Why were all the Protestant Nobility and Gentry turned out of all places either of Honour Profit or Trust and Papists put in their Rooms What could be the design of that ducoy of Liberty of Conscience at a time when since the first beginnings of those unhappy divisions of Protestants here at home there was never less need of it When not any Protestant Party amongst us did so much as Petition for it when the Generality of Dissenters were so well satisfied with the Church of England that there were never fairer hopes of perfect Unity amongst us But this was the matter the division of Protestants amongst themselves would weaken the whole Body of them and render them the more capable of an easie overthrow a design which the wiser sort of Dissenters quickly saw and even the generality of them in a short time were satisfied in For since it 's as easie for the Arctick and Antarctick Poles to meet together or for the East and West to be in Conjunction as to reconcile Infallibility of one Religion with a Toleration of all the necessity of Extirpating all Hereticks with a Connivance at all Heresies all were easily convinced what such a Toleration tended to and none were entrapped in the Snare or trepanned with the Cheat but a few hot-headed Zealots ready to Sacrifice all to Ambition and Revenge What could be the design of putting Papists in for Heads of Houses Masters and Fellows of Colleges in our famous Universities What could be the design of Erecting a High Commission Court for Ecclefiastical Causes for the suspending and depriving of Bishops and Clergy which was justly termed the New Inquisition of England Why was that ensnaring Declaration so violently and yet so unnecessarily prest upon the Clergy to be read in Churches and Seven Bishops imprisoned and the whole Clergy of the Kingdom threatned with Deprivation for Non-Compliance If these things and a great many more will not satisfie men That there was a real Design of subverting our Religion I know not what will. Yet to demonstrate this matter to the full consider only the mighty endeavours that were used to abrogate the Penal Laws and Test in which the King used so much industry that he truly took methods too much below Royal Dignity to effect it What a mean office for a King to become an earnest Sollicitor of his Subjects to that which they could not in Conscience nor Honour yield to and then a disobliger of all his Kingdom for removing them from all places upon so necessary a refusal The design must be mighty great when Arts both so mean and so harsh were used to accomplish it But this was it The Papists had then stood upon even ground with all other Subjects and the great advantage of Authority on their side would quickly have raised their Ground above us the doors of both Houses of Parliament had been set wide open to them whence the House of Peers might quickly have been filled with new Creations and the House of Commons as quickly made Popish by Force or Fraud in Elections Corporations being framed and regulated agreeable to the design and what could be then expected but a sudden Establishment of Popery The whole Nation did see this Project so clearly that the greatest part of the Dissenters were so sensible of the mischief that though they had smarted somewhat hardly under the Lash of the Penal Laws but a little while before yet they would rather venture the Continuance of them than run the hazard of ruining the substance and being of the Protestant Religion amongst us nor could all the virulent Pamphlets thrown about to exasperate them by a Tragical Commemoration of their former Suffering by the Penal Laws ever perswade them so far out of their Senses as not to be fully assured that the Little Finger of the Popish Inquisition would be heavier upon them than the Loins of all the Penal Laws made since the Reformation against them And indeed to the Fidelity of that Party at that Critical time are we to ascribe a great share of the disappointment the Popish Party met with being much chafed that the Grand Cheat of the Toleration had no better success And as all these plain matters of fact are more than sufficient to convince us of the Mischievous Design of subverting the Established Religion in these Kingdoms so are they a plain and evident proof that there was certainly a Private League between the Late King James and the French King for bringing this to pass tho there were nothing else to evince is For it could never be hoped that the Popish Party here in England could do it their Strength and Interest were not sufficient to accomplish such a Design There was a fine Army indeed but most of them Protestants who would hardly be commanded by Popish Officers to ruine their Religion for men must certainly fight very faintly when the edge of their Swords is turned against themselves and their success is certain desolation to their Country From whence one of these two things must follow either that King James had no Resolution to change the Religion of this Nation the contrary of which appears by what hath been said and besides to say so is to put the greatest affront and dishonour upon the Late King that can be and calls his Wisdom and Discretion highly in question in the conduct of his Affairs that he should do all these mean harsh and suspitious things before alledged for no other end but to bring an obloquy upon himself to render his Government uneasie fearful and suspected and to disoblige all the three Kingdoms But if it cannot be admitted that a person of any common seuse or reason should be guilty of so much Indiscretion that might in the end prove so fatal to himself then we must acknowledge that some Foreign Power was certainly to be made use of since no reasonable man proposeth to himself any end but withall he proposeth means proportionate to that end in order to the acquiring of it and now we would fain learn what other Force can so much as come under the Probability of being made use of but the French And now that which makes this Design abundantly the more inexcusable in it self and the more insupportable to us is this That this Church and the Religion professed in it run such a great hazard from a Prince from whom the Members of that Church and Professors of that Religion had all the reason in the world to expect much kinder usage For I am sure never any Prince could be more highly obliged by Subjects than King James was by the Members of the Church of England both before and after he was King. Not
to run so far back as the unhappy Wars in his Father's time of ever Blessed and Glorious Memory when the Church of England was ruined and a great many of the Members of it of all degrees and conditions exposed to the greatest miseries for their firm adherence to the Interest of the Crown Nor yet to speak of his Late Majesty King Charles the Second's happy Restauration it 's enough only to reflect upon our dutiful behaviour to King James himself both when Duke and King. Who were the great opposers of the Bill of Exclusion in Parliament both in the House of Lords and Commons and out of Parliament all the Kingdom over and preferred their standing fast to the Duke's Interest at that time to all their own Interest in the World What Reproaches Disgraces Insolencies nay Threats were cast upon and used towards us we very well remember Was there ever any King received by his People or proclaimed in all Places with greater Satisfaction Joy and Acclamations than he was For who then doubted of the Sincerity of King James the Just Who were they that so readily setled the Revenue of the Crown and gave larger supplies than the necessity of Affairs required Who were they that stood the Shock and ventured their Lives in suppressing of that dangerous Rebellion of Monmouth Were they not all Members of the Church of England who preserved the Crown for King James before he came to the possession of it by opposing the Bill of Exclusion and kept it upon his Head when he was possessed of it by suppressing Monmouth's Rebellion And this brings to my mind an Expression in the Oxford Reasons against signing the Address of their Bishop Dr. Parker for being told that their refusal of the Address would exasperate the King and move him to take rougher Methods against the Church their Answer was That if the remembrance of the Services of the Church to the Crown in those two Affairs of the Bill of Exclusion and Monmouth's Rebellion were not sufficient to secure the King's kindness to and protection of the Church of England and its Members the signing of such insignificant Addresses would never do it and truly I cannot tell what else could do it But the truth of it is the Papists have all along upon all occasions so ill requited the Fidelity of the Protestants to their Popish Princes as if they had a mind never more to be obliged in that nature I need not speak of the obligations put upon Queen Mary the Daughter of Henry the Eighth and the barbarous usage shewed them in a very little while after nor of former dealings of that kind in France the present King of France hath demonstrated this to the full he ows his possession of the Crown of France and consequently all his Glory he so proudly boasts of to the firm adherence of his Protestant Subjects to his Interest He hath several times publickly owned this and yet his Cruelty to them hath far surpassed all Heathen Barbarity And now I am very sorry that such a hearty Endeavour to subvert the Religion established in this Church which could not be without the ruine of those to whom the late King JAMES was so highly obliged hath given such another fresh Instance that Popery will not suffer Kings so much as to be grateful to their Subjects for by this means they have more than satisfied the World that it 's utterly unsafe for a Protestant Kingdom to be under the Government of a Popish Prince But since all men have neither that knowledge of nor that zeal for their Religion that it were heartily to be wished they had yet every man is very sensible when their Liberties and Properties and the Laws by which they are secured are invaded and lest the Endeavours to subvert Religion should not have been sufficient to have provoked the Nation there was added to this a plain Invasion of the Rights of the Subject and of the Laws upon which they are grounded to let the World know that there was no mistake in those men who affirmed that Popery could never be introduced into this Kingdom unless Slavery ushered it in It were endless to make instances of this the Master and Fellows of Magdalen Colledge are a sufficient proof of this who were deprived of their Freeholds by a most arbitrary Sentence of a Court that in the whole constitution of it was utterly illegal and in an Affair of this nature a Judge altogether incompetent where the Persons concerned were admitted to no legal Tryal before the competent Judges by a Jury of the Vicinage as in those Cases is the Law of the Nation but were removed by Persons who had no more right to disposess them of their Freeholds than the Persons receiving such an injurious Sentence had to dispossess their very Judges of theirs And it was no wonder that the general Cry of the Nation following that unjust and Arbitrary Sentence was All our Freeholds and Estates shake by this Sentence Another proof of this Invasion of our Rights and Estates was the most exorbitant and extravagant Fines put upon persons by the plain Arbitrary Will of the Judges as if they would declare to the World their design was rather to ruine the Delinquent than punish the Delinquency This was so frequent that every Term shewed how easily for very small faults men might be ruined in their Fortunes in a trice The invading the Rights of Corporations was more than sufficient proof that our Liberties Estates and Laws were in the greatest hazard The despoiling them of all their Ancient Privileges struck at the very Foundation of the Government it self the altering all the Ancient Prescriptions in choosing of persons for Representatives in Parliament struck at the very Fountain of our Laws both in being and to be made But above all things tending to the ruine of all our Security in our Laws Liberties and Properties none is more worthy of our serious consideration than that Hellow of Dispensing Power that would have devoured all at a morsel and swallowed all at one draught if need had been there was no Law no Privilege able to stand in the way of this Leviathan This was such a Power that once being yielded to in the full latitude it was claimed would have rendered all Laws in England not only uncertain and insecure but utterly needless nay altogether ridiculous For to what purpose should the Nation be put to so much trouble and charge to elect Representatives for the House of Commons or why should Persons who have either a natural Right as Noblemen or a deputed Right as Commoners go from all parts of the Kingdom to enact Laws for the good and profit of the Realm if the Sovereign Power can dispense with them whenever their backs are turned To what purpose is all this wast Or why should the Nation be fooled with Laws which when made promise us the greatest security in all things that are most valuable when in the
Genius of the Nation than hazard his Majesties Honour and Safety in such violent and harsh measures But the truth of it is they saw they had nothing to rely upon but the King's Life and that was as uncertain as any other mans and therefore they were willing to drive at all furiously For say they if we succeed we have our aim the day is our own if not we know the worst of it we are but where we were we can as easily retire to the Cells we crept from as we left them but whether the King sink or swim is the least of our concerns And ah that these Wretches had fallen alone without drawing such a Prince into such misfortunes with them by their precipitate Counsels Let this therefore be for ever another instance of Popish Treachery and Falshood to their Princes for these men always act as if they gloried in being the Instruments of the Destruction of Kings or Kingdoms or Both. And as they were the falsest Men to their Prince so they were the foolishest for never Men took so improper means to attain their Ends as they did In truth they left nothing undone which any man could wish them to do who never so earnestly wished a disappointment of all their Designs as a Reverend Divine and great Man of our Church said in his Sermon on the Thanksgiving-day they were Politicians by Book and never consulted the Genius and Humour of that People they had to do with It may be they are thought very wise Men and great Politicians in other Countreys but they can never in England expect any thing but the reputation of the most imprudent and unpolitick of Men and I hope this great Instance will be sufficient to convince all Princes how unsafe it is for them to trust Men of little Honesty and less Discretion If it be again said That the late King in all these things so deservedly decried was inform'd of the Legality of them by his Judges whose Advice in the like Cases all our Kings have relied upon so if he erred it was their fault and besides such as do unlawful things by the King's Command are liable to answer for it notwithstanding but not the King Himself To this the Answer is very easie The whole Nation knoweth very well that when the Judges at any time gave just and good Advice according to the Law and the best of their knowledge if it thwarted the Design intended there was a Quietus ready at hand for their descent from the Bench and thus the whole Reign of King James there was a perpetual Change of the Judges till they were so modelled as to secure the Interest driven at nay in the very last famous Tryal of the Seven Bishops all know that two of the Judges were immediately removed for giving their Opinion contrary to that Interest So that it is extremely plain the King was not advised by his Judges but the Judges by him how they should act at their Perils and he would have no other than such as would serve his design as for such as acted by his Authority either in Civil or Military Affairs it 's plain few or none were allowed of but such as would serve the Popish Interest what meant else the Change of Charters the Regulating of Corporations the so frequent alterations of the Governors of them the removing of all Officers that would not comply the previous Questions put so diligently all over the Kingdom to Deputy-Lieutenants Officers of the Militia Justices of Peace Magistrates of Cities and Boroughs concerning Elections of future Members of Parliament The King then was so far from suffering Persons to be brought to Tryal for their unjust and illegal Actions that as he would have no other Persons in his Service so he avowed their Protection In vain it was to expect a redress of these things since even in the beginning of that Reign when that King was so much obliged to the Fidelity of the Nation for opposing the Duke of Monmouth so vigorously yet that very House of Commons who but a little while before was so highly cajolled and caressed by the King went away with a Repulse to their honest Address against Papists bearing Offices without legal Qualifications and in a sew days after he prorogued them and never met them more Since then the late King would have no other Persons to serve him nor any in places of Trust but such as highly disserved the Nation since he protected such Persons in all their illegal Proceedings certainly all they did is clearly imputable to himself for so he would have it and no otherwise In fine while it 's said King James was lawful King of England accountable to none for his Actions but God only that all we had to do was to submit either Actively or Passively that our Oaths had obliged us against all Resistance of his Majesty or those commissioned by him and therefore let the worst be supposed that can be we cannot justify our reliction of him or transferring our Allegiance from him Now in the first place this is a plain acknowledgment That we had very great cause of complaining and only helps us with this Accumulation of our Misery we have no possibility of Redress Now it 's a desperate Condition a Prince is brought to that the only Justification of his Proceedings consists in asserting an unlimited and uncontroulable Power and indeed it is much the worse when this is done to a Nation that never have nor never will acknowledg themselves to be Slaves to be ruled by the Arbitrary and Despotick Power of their King but are Subjects governed by their King in the Execution of the Laws of the Land. Again There is nothing more certain than this That there is so great reference to be had to Governors and Government that every small irregularity in Government ought not to lessen the Affection or Fidelity of Subjects such as Injuries accruing only to some private Persons or if they be of a publick and general Nature yea even against Laws in force yet if it be in matters of small concern and importance it is rather to be born with than the Peace of the Government to be disturbed it is in such Cases duly to be considered that nothing perfect is to be found under the Sun that Changes and Alterations upon such small accounts would render Government very unsteady and uneasy to the main end of it which is the peace of Mankind But what if the Case be such that there is no less attempted than the ruin of Souls and Bodies and Fortunes of far the greatest part of the Subjects What if those Laws are laid aside and rendred useless which were enacted of set purpose to secure the Religion and Property of all the Subjects without ever consulting the Legislative Power nay after a great part of that Power hath remonstrated against it What if such Courses be taken as perfectly destroys the very being of Parliaments and makes a
summoning of them utterly impracticable according to the Fundamental Constitutions of the Kingdom Does not these and such like Proceedings perfectly dissolve the Government to our hands and deprive the King of the best Security he hath for his Crown to wit the Security of the Laws so dissolved And that this was our Case is apparent by what is before written And this brings to my mind a saying of the late King James at his first Accession to the Crown That he desired to be no greater King than the Laws of England made him and upon my Conscience had he continued always in that mind and acted accordingly he might nay he would have Reigned a Glorious King to the great Joy and Satisfaction of all his Subjects I suppose it will be granted That the end of all Government is the Protection and Peace and Security of the People by governing of them agreeably to the Laws enacted for that end now if this end cease and all things be acted contrary is there not an end of that Government with relation to the Peoples concerns in it And in such case what can reasonably be expected from them by the Laws of God of Nature and Self-preservation the first and great Principle of Nature but that they should look for better terms where they may have them All this whole matter is grounded upon a false Opinion of Government being Jure Divino even with relation to the species or kind of Government nay to the very Person or Family regnant than which there cannot well be a greater Paradox for tho it be most true that Government in general is of Divine and Natural Right yet all the World will never be able to make either of these two things appear viz. either that this or that Species of Government is of such a right for example Monarchy in contradistinction to all other or much less that this or that family or person hath such a Divine or natural right to such or such a Kingdom or Dominion for upon this Principle we condemn all other kinds of Government as sinful we oblige our selves to perpetuate the Succession of the same Family in a direct Line in the same Dominion a thing by the experience of all Ages known to be impossible and of which this Kingdom on several occasions hath taken very little notice For he is a mighty stranger to the English Histories who knows not that some Persons have been removed from the Administration of the Regal Power by the Authority of Parliament and others Crowned in their stead while the former were in being and likewise in the Succession of the Crown little regard hath been had to the next in Proximity of Blood whatever outcry we make now and certainly when it was Enacted in Queen Elizabeth's time That it should be a Praemunire for any person to affirm That it was not in the power of the Parliament to settle the Succession of the Crown they were far from dreaming of this Chimaera of Divine Right And certainly when a Parliament in Henry the 8th's time gave that King Power to settle the manner of the Succession and nominate the Successors as he thought fit they were far from this Divine Right too Nay this Opinion that men would so fain impose upon us is destructive of all Right of Conquest or Prescription for against Divine and Natural Right none of these are prevalent for still the former Obligation remains to the kind of Government and Family pleading such a Divine Right which would be so far from conducing to the Peace of Mankind the great End of all Government that it would certainly perpetuate Blood War and lasting Confusions In a word I am sure our Government is such as will acknowledge That the Kings of England are bound to govern their People not as they please but according to the Laws of the Land Now I would fain ask these few Questions upon this Concession Whether it be just that the King should be absolutely secured by the peoples Oath of Fidelity to him and if they break it Gibbets Axes Whipping-Posts Pillories Exile Confiscations of Goods are their just and deserved Punishments and yet the People should have no Security in the Earth by any Oaths the King makes to them but he is still at his liberty to break them and the People without all possibility of redress if he do so And consequently Whether the Coronation-Oath be a meer matter of form and administred only to mock God and the Nation since after all the King may at pleasure break it and the whole Kingdom hath no remedy but God help Whether when Christ and his Apostles prescribed to us general Rules of Subjection and Obedience to Government they did not leave the several Nations in the possession of those Civil Rights they enjoy'd notwithstanding but engag'd Mankind to be all Slaves to the Lust and Will of their Governours without possibility of controul Whether any acting in this Kingdom by an illegal Commission can possibly be esteemed to act by the King's Commission which we are sworn not to resist since it 's certain that all Illegal Commissions are null and void in themselves and that Men are bound to resist such in their own defence since the Subject is never to suppose any private Will of the King in the governing of his People contrary to the publick Will of his Laws and is always to be supposed that he who takes upon him the just defence of the Laws is so far from resisting the King that he is really defending of him If the Case be not thus then we certainly are commanded to swear and actually do swear to expose our Persons Families Fortunes Laws Liberties nay Religion it self to as many Mens Wills as may have the Conscience to act against us or ruine us in any or all these particulars by Illegal Commissions In fine Whether the King 's being generally said to do no wrong be not to be interpreted either because he most commonly employs other persons in the execution of his Commands either Legal or Illegal or else in respect that the King being sworn to govern by Law he is not to be supposed to act against it If the First then they that execute illegal Commands are liable to be called in question and punished for so doing but if the King protecting them with all his Power prevent this Justice doth he not then make these Illegal Executions his own whether we will or no If the Second then we are to conlude That no Illegal Act is a Regal Act and consequently if a King either by Himself or by Others commissionated by him oppress and ruine his People in all particulars that are of greatest concern to Mankind he so far Unkings himself and puts his People upon an absolute necessity of Self-defence As for the lawfulness of transferring our Allegiance to Their present Majesties the Reverend Bishop of Salisbury in his excellent Letter to his Clergy hath so fully cleared
that Point that it were presumption in me further to undertake the Defence of it Let me only add That the late King shewed the most fixed Resolution in the World by his going to France for what was this but rather than suffer any Redress of the insupportable Grievances of his People he would rather forsake and abandon them and apply himself to the sworn Enemy of his Kingdoms both in their Religion and Civil Rights King James sent to the Prince of Orange some Noblemen to treat with him but had not the patience to stay long after the Answer but rather than listen to the calling of a Free Parliament withdrew himself voluntarily when no Enemy was near him His coming back again to Whitehall was a meer force put upon him for at Feversham when Persons of Quality in those parts tendred him their best Service his constant Answer was The most acceptable service you can do me is to facilitate my departure and procure means for my going beyond Sea And whatever noise is made about his leaving Whitehall the second time yet it 's plain his resolution was still to depart as a thing he was before most solemnly engaged to do and so to leave his People rather than enter upon fair and legal ways of giving them satisfaction and this the Lords and Commons in Convention as freely chosen as ever Representatives were to any Parliament in England have avowed to be an Abdication of his Government and Vacating of his Throne And I would know but these two things in this particular Whether in the condition we were left by the King's departure any better juster or speedier course could be taken to save the Nation from those Miseries and Confusions it must necessarily have fallen into in that state of Anarchy the King left us than that of calling such a Convention And then Whether such a Convention so freely called and chosen when met doth not conclude the Nation by their Resolutions since all knew their Election was for this very purpose to restore us the Happiness of a settled State and by electing of them included Themselves and their Consents to their Resolves as much as ever they did in other Elections to Parliament As for those Redresses that were made just upon the News of the Prince's Intention for England they were done at such a time as too plainly shewed it to be the product of Fear and Necessity not of Choice and it 's well known that what Kings in straits are forced to do when free they voluntarily and readily undo and the worst wish I wish King James is That what he did then he had done a twelve-month before tho even then the greatest matters continued as they were viz. Persons in all Offices of Trust without legal qualifications by virtue of the Dispensing Power then not in the least disowned By what I have said it plainly appears that our Condition when their Majesties arrived here was most deplorable without any hope of a redress our Miseries daily growing upon us and it 's not uneasie for any man to divine what our Case must certainly have been had not God raised up this mighty Deliverer our present King to put a stop to those unhappy Proceedings and if we be so insensible of this great Deliverance and so soon have forgot our former Thraldom and our just fears of worse I can say no more but that we are as bad as the Israeliets desiring Egypt again when their faces were towards Canaan and lusting for the Flesh-pots there when they were feeding on Angels Food And so I come to shew the danger of our Relapse by considering the happy Estate and Condition we are in by this blessed Revolution We may take up in these Nations that Song of David When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Sion then were we like unto them that dream The Deliverance was so strange and wonderful that it appeared plainly the Lord's doing and therefore marvelous in our eyes We may look upon the Providence that gave the Prince of Orange our now most Gracious King so just a right to succour us as wonderful even that happy day wherein the Auspicious Marriage of that Royal Pair was consummated to the great joy and lasting security of the Peace and Happiness of these Nations This was I am sure a great earnest of the Divine Goodness and a happy Omen of this blessed Fruit of it I know not what to admire most at in this prodigious Deliverance That a matter of so great importance that must of necessity be communicated to several persons both at home and abroad should take no air all the while till just it was ready to be executed so that the Deliverance was sudden and unexpected no-ways looked for at that time or in that manner is scarce to be exemplified the means used to effect this Design being so unproportionate to this great end designed makes the success a Prodigy The extent of this Blessing is not the least thing considerable in it it is general to the whole Nation every one shares in the Deliverance those only excepted that would fain have made us miserable For as the Religion and Civil Interests of all were equally in danger so the Security of both is extensive to all Nay this Revolution secures Truth and the Profession of it to other Nations for it 's well known what hazard the Protestant Religion every-where had been in had it been subverted in this famous Island And therefore however ungrateful we may be who yet have the more immediate advantage of it yet I am sure all Protestant Europe are liâ—ting up their Hearts Hands and Tongues in the Praises of the God of Truth who hath so signally appeared for our Deliverance and in that for their security Let us look upon our present Condition Would we be content to be happy and compare it to what we were a Twelve-Month ago then we were almost in Despair sadly thinking with our selves to what strange Countries we should repair to avoid the impending Storm our Bishops were thrown into Prisons our Clergy threatned with Deprivations and Suspensions our Universities pursued with Quo Warranto's our Colledges invaded by the Locusts of Egypt the Abomination of the Mass and Idolatry and Superstition of Popery set up in all the Corners of City and Countrey our Judges carrying about Shavelings to preach before them in their Circuits and they themselves in their Charges at Assizes preaching Sermons of Transubstantiation and Submission to the See of Rome Protestants discountenanced discarded disgraced Papists every where in City in Countrey in Court in Armies in Forts in Navies in Corporations in Counties lording it over us Parliaments intended us worse than none the Complement of our Miseries being expected from them as Elections were then ordered which made all good Men wish from their Souls That whatever our Condition was or might be yet we might never see a Parliament sit in England during King James the Second's Reign
since they would never be suffered to do us good and in all probability could not fail in doing us much harm The Case is quite altered now as is obvious at first sight our Religion hath the greatest Security our Bishops and Clergy the greatest Protection our Vacant Bishopricks are filled with the most wise and learned of the Clergy Colledges are restored to their proper Owners the Idolatry of Popery dare not shew it self any where the Wind hath blown these Locusts of Priests Jesuits c. beyond the Seas to their former Lurking-Places every one sits safe under his own Vine enjoying securely the Liberty of an Englishman the Property he is possest of our Councils Navies Armies Magistrates are Protestants and a Security to our Religion dearer to us than our Lives our Judges are as at the first and our Counsellors as at the beginning Pray Gentlemen recount with your Selves What was our greatest Hope our only Comfort on Earth in those Days of our Dustress What was it that sustained our Spirits and delivered us from utter Dispair What did we discourse of every-where to one another as the sole Foundation of our Hopes of Freedom and Relief Was it not that the King was a Mortal Man and after him we had a Reserve of the Prince and Princess of Orange for our Security How often then did we cast our Eyes and Hearts upon the Belgick Shore trusting that at last the Providence of God would whaft over that blessed Pair to the lasting Joy of this British Island The Papists knew this very well and could never think themselves safe till these Princes Interests were defeated and thereby as they thought all our Hopes frustrate But God that brings Good out of the greatest Evil by his infinite Wisdom and Power converted that Project by which they intended to perpetuate the Slavery of these Nations to an accelerating or hastening our Deliverance sooner than ever we hoped for it for never was there a juster Cause given any Prince to quarrel with a Possessor than was given the Prince of Orange when he saw not only all our Laws violated and the People of England enslaved but likewise his just Interest in the Crown in Right of his Princess the immediate Heir so violently invaded without any Satisfaction given usual in such Cases of the Sincerity of that Affair of the pretended Prince of Wales in which not only this whole Nation was violently suspicious upon very great Grounds but likewise the intended Fraud was the Discourse of Europe This Matter hath been sufficiently written of and for my part if there were no more to create a Diffidence in me not possible of receiving any Satisfaction this would be more than sufficient that I never heard of any Satisfaction given to the Great and Vertuous Lady the Princess Ann of Denmark in this whole Affair and yet it was highly just she should have received it in respect of her Proximity to the Crown and likewise in regard of that Fruitful Womb God hath been pleased to bless her Highness with whose Children have a very fair Prospect to the Royal Inheritance it had been likewise very easy to have done it because her Highness was perpetually upon the very place where the Scene was acting just till the time of its finishing and then it was most necessary she should have been there and it 's impossible to imagine had it been a real Thing care would have been taken that she should have been present but on the other Hand if it was not real then it was altogether necessary that of all Persons she should be out of the way and such care was accordingly taken And as her Satisfaction was both just and easy so it would have been of mighty advantage to the convincing of the Nation of the Truth of it her Highnesse's Evidence would have been of more weight than all those at Council-Board in respect none will bear witness against their own Interest especially in a matter of so great Moment unless it be very true All the answer ever I could hear to this most material ground of Suspicion is either that there was no Obligation to give any such Satisfaction or that the Princess did not desire it and was not curious of being satisfied To which this is only fit to be said by way of Reply that the first is a desperate and the second a senseless Answer Is it not then a great Favour of God to us that the Deliverance we so earnestly wished and the Persons on whom our Eyes were fixed are thus come to our Deliverance our very Enemies hastening it sooner than ever we looked for it Is it not the Joy of all good Men who love the Prosperity of our Sion and pray for her Peace to see a Protestant King and Queen in England a Happiness Britain hath not been favoured with since the Death of Queen Ann the Wife of King James the First We have no Dalilah in the Bosom of our Sampson to allure him to betray his own and the Nations Strength that we may be the easier Prey to the Philistines The Marriage of our Kings to Ladies of the Popish Persuasion hath been so plain a Cause of the Nations Misery that we have great cause to rejoice in so happy a sight as both King and Queen to be of the same Religion and that which is the professed and established Religion of their Kingdoms and it s greatly to be hoped the Wisdom of our Parliament will make it no small part of their Care to prevent the Mischiefs that have so constantly attended our Kings being so unequally yoked Our King and Queen draw not now several Ways their Principles are the same as they are in Bed and at Board one so it 's our great Comfort to see them repair to the same Churches exercised in the same Devotions addressing to the same Altar in a word of the same Faith and Religion to the great encouragement of their Subjects to follow so pious so great an Example So that there are no hopes now of the Philistines plowing with Sampson's Heifer The Royal Interest is now absolutely the same with that of the People for their Majesties and their People are more surely tyed together by the Bonds of that Religion for which both have an equal Zeal than by any Political Obligations whatsoever so that now both rejoice in the mutual Prosperity of each other their Majesties rejoicing in their Peoples Security and they again in the Royal Protection as in all Things so chiefly in that which is the best of all Things Religion Neither are we to neglect the Consideration of that which deservedly makes his present Majesty the Darling of these three Kingdoms nay like another Titus the Delight of Mankind viz. that the King the Prince of Orange had no such great matters to look for as to his own Interest to move him to encounter so great Dangers to undergo so much Trouble He was considerably great in the Low-Countries
he hath no Children to enjoy the Crown after his own Death so that it plainly appears his Zeal for Religion his great concern for the bleeding state of these Nations his love to Justice did much more prevail with him to this Heroick and Glorious Undertaking than any concern of his own in the Case Now upon the whole if we despise so wonderful a Mercy and become so bereft of Reason as to be weary of Happiness and court perpetual Slavery and abandon our present Security and Tranquillity for those Miseries we have reason to look for upon such an unwise change What can we then expect but to be treated by God as the despisers of his greatest Goodness and to perish without so much as the pity of Men since we knew not how to prize a lasting Security when we had it in our Hands and consequently that our Relapse must be very miserable to us But if at last we propose to our Selves the Miseries that must unavoidably fall upon us if the Sins of this Nation so provoke God as to bereave us of that Happiness we now enjoy and if we be wise may entail it upon our Posterity by another Revolution some Men so eagerly desire we cannot but be convinced that a Relapse is highly dangerous I do profess that the Calamities that fatally attend such a Revolution are so tremendous and horrible that the very apprehension of them cannot but strike considerate Men into the greatest Confusion and Amazement we can expect nothing else but that our Miseries should occasion our being a Proverb and a By-word a hissing and reproach of Popish Nations who gape for our Ruine and greedily thirst after our Destruction and on the other Hand that we should be followed with Execrations and Curses from the Protestant World for so treacherously betraying that Truth we had so great a Zeal for that a Nation that glorified so justly in being accounted the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion should so fatally occasion the total overthrow of it I will but briefly recount some of those Mischiefs that any reasonable Man cannot but apprehend must overtake us upon such a Relapse if we consider with what Rage and Fury with what thirst of Revenge not only the late King whose natural Temper doth not much dispose him to a forgetting of Injuries but all of the Popish Party must return amongst us what are we to expect Is the late King ever the less a Papist than before Hath he abated any thing of his Zeal for that Superstition Have the Jesuits c. any other Sentiments of us and our Religion than they had ask the Protestants of Ireland and they will inform you who fly as fast out of that Kingdom as ever the French Refuges forsook France If we were so unjustly used when we had given no Offence what are we to look for when the worst of Crimes shall be laid to our Charge If our Religion 〈◊〉 â—ear lost our Laws and Liberties invaded when all the Obligations of the Earth were upon the Prince to protect them how utterly must all be lost when the Resentments of so late Affronts shall expose us to all the direful Effects of an ungoverned Zeal and enraged Revenge But besides How are we to expect that such a Revolution should be brought about I am very confident England and Scotland will never be willing to afford so great a Strength as is sufficient for such an Enterprize some hot-headed Men may assist a stronger Party from Abroad but they will never undertake to do it alone No no we plainly see it's an Irish and French Power must do this thence Men Money and Arms must come this is so certain that I do not believe any Man in the Nation so bereft of Sense as to expect it any other way And now what a Train of Miseries this Dragons-Tail draws after it is not easy either to be thought or exprest if ever such a dismal Calamity should befal us we shall want another Jeremiah to write the Lamentations of our Judah and Jerusalem I do not think that ever any Nation under Heaven was exposed to a more barbarous Desolation than this poor Nation must be upon such an unhappy Change. How hath the French King used his own Subjects to whom by the Oaths of God upon his Soul he owed all Protection and if so cruel at Home what are we Strangers to expect from his Armies but all the Outrages that attend an insulting Conquest of an Enemy who hath resolved our Ruine and sworn the Extirpation of our Religion If the cutting us off from being a People should be the price of it what are we to expect whose unhappy Connivance hath occasioned all his Greatness and whose Strength and Riches are the Shears that now clips his Wings from soaring to that height of Universal Empire he so vainly and proudly grasps at And the Truth is this is a great Misery that upon such a Change the Crown of England is most likely to devolve not from King William to King James but from King William to King Lewis of France which the great God of Heaven avert We have heard of Princes sposled of their Dominions by that King but never could hear yet of any Prince restored by him Can it possibly enter into the Thoughts of any reasonable Man that the King of France will employ his Forces by Sea and Land and spend his Treasures in conquering of these Kingdoms and then quietly deliver them up to another to possess who himself labours so deeply of the Dropsy of enlarging his Dominions that neither Faith of Treaties Laws of Nations Oath of God nor the sence of common Equity and Justice could ever yet bind him from making the most unjust Encroachments upon his Neighbours wherever he could And this is the more to be considered because it 's very easy to believe that the Popish Clergy of England would be willing enough it should be so King Lewis being more able to maintain his Conquest than King James can ever be supposed to be to maintain his Possession and their Security and if the Popish Clergy may justly be supposed to become so indifferent in this case it 's easy to foresee how the Laity of that Persuasion might be induced to a Satisfaction since these so slavishly and indeed so brutishly hang their Consciences at those Mens Girdles so that upon the whole King Lewis is like to be the only Gainer altho I am far from thinking that they who make this noise amongst us aim at any such thing yet it is worth their while seriously to consider whether it will lye in their Power to prevent or help it As for the Irish their Carriage to Protestants in King Charles the First 's Time and now to the Protestants at this very instant is more than sufficient to satisfy us what Measures we are to expect from them their natural Barbarity their constant Aversion to the English Nation their thirst after a Reprisal
upon Protestants Estates to make up the pretended Damages they have sustained their ignorant and blind Zeal for a rooted Superstition are too much to convince us with what Intentions they must invade us and what are like to be the Effects of their barbarous Cruelty In a word it's Papists are certainly to be employed to do this grand Feat who will be sure to give the Protestants that shall be so unwise as to assist them the same Thanks that Queen Mary gave those of Suffolk that the King of France hath given his Protestants and that the late King James did so lately give the Church of England they will find at last to their Cost the Effects of that unalterable Maxim amongst them That no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks But then how is it possible for us without the highest concern in the World to represent to our selves the Consequences of such a Change with relation to their present Majesties and the Princess Ann of Denmark I am very loth to insist too long upon this it s so extreamly Tragical Is this the Gratitude we owe to the most magnanimous couragious and charitable Undertaking that ever was to rescue three Nations out of the Jaws of Popery and Slavery Can we find in our Heart to expose our great Deliverer to so much Danger in his Person and Ruine in his Fortune who so readily ventured Life and Fortune for our Good Can we so willingly deprive our selves of all our Hopes reposed in these Protestant Branches of the Royal Family as for ever to render them uncapable of doing us any further Kindness or affording us any further Protection Have we so little sense of the most steadfast Constancy and the unmovable Fidelity of these great Persons to the Religion and Interest of these Nations which could never be byaffed by the Authority of a King and Father nor shaken by the violent Temptations and Assaults upon their Constancy Who by their fixed Resolutions to adhere to our Interests had the worst of Arts used to deseat them of their just Rights for would they have but complyed with the Designs projected against us I dare say neither they nor we had ever been troubled with a Prince of Wales Can we expect in another Deluge of Misery to have another Prince of Orange so successfully and miraculously to draw us out of it No no it 's to be hoped the Nation will never be prevailed upon to incur the Guilt of such Ingratitude to Persons we owe our Religion Laws and Liberties to We will never do that which will so justly expose us to the Censures of the World and render us unworthy in any Circumstances of any Foreign Assistance so utterly inconsistent with the Safety of those who afford it In a Word we will be so just to our Selves as not to entail Popery and Bondage to our Posterity for if we lose these great Persons where can we fix our hopes of any Relief Can we likewise without Astonishment think upon the Condition of Lords and Commons in this present Parliament in case of any such Change of Affairs without Horror Have we chosen so many worthy Patriots to represent us there only to expose them to the greatest Mischiefs Have they been so faithful to re-settle us into a most happy Condition by securing our Religion Laws and Liberties to be left at last to the Fury and Malice of Popish Vengeance Did the Famous Nobility and Generous Gentry of this Kingdom venture all for the Security of the Nation to no other purpose than to lose Honour Estate Life and all for their Zeal to their Religion and Love to their Country Surely as we cannot but believe that this must be the Consequence of such an unhappy Change with relation to the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom so it 's not to be doubted but that all England will conceive a just Indignation against such Ingratitude and will apprehend themselves obliged to espouse their Interest cordially and unanimously who have so wisely and with so much Courage secured to us all Things capable of our utmost Esteem In a word when we seriously consider the great Danger the Protestant Interest is exposed to all over Europe that nothing less is intended than the rooting out of that vile pestilent Northern Heresy as the Enemies of our Holy Religion are pleased to call it I hope we will think more than once upon it before we contribute so highly to the utter Subversion of the Protestant Religion in general every where as the cutting off of these three Kingdoms from it must necessarily occasion It 's well known that these Churches of Great Britain and Ireland and more particularly that of England have been justly look'd upon as the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion in general and therefore the Papists have used their utmost Fraud in undermining of her and their utmost Violence in raising up their Batteries against her assuring themselves if they could but once gain this Bulwark they would quickly and with Ease make themselves Masters of the whole Fort it 's well known that the French King durst never have used his Protestant Subjects as he both perfidiously and barbarously did if England had had the liberty to have espoused their Interest and it was justly look'd upon as a wonderful Thing that the King of England should be declaring himself so much for Liberty of Conscience here and yet on the other side of the Water the French King should be using all sorts of Cruelties upon those of our Religion wholly to extirpate it and yet King James should never become their Intercessor nor declare to that King his just Resentments of his Acting so contrary to his constant Principles especially when his using his Subjects so could not but strike all his own English Subjects into an Alarm and put them upon sadly divining what in all probability was like to be their own Fate in time Why have the Protestant Princes and States entered into so strong a Confederacy looking upon their present Majesties as the Chief support of it but upon the certain knowledg they had of a Design on Foot to ruin them and thus it may be easily conjectured what must be the Danger of the Protestant Religion abroad if England be rendred uncapable of giving Assistance to its Professors nay more if the strength of England be made use of to promote their Destruction But it s obvious this must be the result of the return of Popery and Slavery amongst us so that upon the whole Matter if ever such a Judgment from Heaven should overtake us as the return of this unclean Spirit of Popery and its Usher Slavery among us we cannot but expect that not only Seven but a Legion of Miseries worse then we have felt must return with it sufficient to make our last Case worse then our first The Case being so plainly thus is it possible that Men can ever be in love with such Miseries as these not only upon
themselves but upon their Innocent Posterity For the Word is Now or Never and Now and Ever And that we may never feel the Mischiefs of the last part of this Sentence I hope we will take Care to Secure the first that because not now therefore they never shall prevail upon us I beseech you Gentlemen who seem to be so willing to bereave us of our present Tranquillity and to contribute what in you lies to bring a Deluge of Miseries upon us in which you your selves must certainly be overwhelmed if ever you be truly Zealous for and faithful to the Truth of God profest in this Nation I pray you to consider with your Selves that if your Desires should succeed and you should be aiding and assisting to it what late Repentance and Horror must seize upon you while you shall sadly then when it is to late reflect upon that Destruction you have brought upon your Country and Fellow-Country-Men and it 's not to be doubted but at last upon your Selves too But if Men will continue obstinate in Mischief and are resolved to use their utmost Endeavours to rush us again into Confusions and to set all in a Flame it 's to be hoped his Majesty will have such a special regard to the Welfare of these Nations in which that of his own and all the Protestant Branches of the Royal Family is so closely wrapt up that he will most diligently inspect into the wicked Practices and most villanous Designs of such ill-minded-Men and indeed they ought betimes to bethink themselves what the whole Kingdom must think those Men worthy of who are Haters of their Peace and Contrivers of their Destruction for what ever Eyes they look with and whatsoever Prospective-Glass they make use of they must pardon us who can see nothing but lasting Misery attending their Projects and Designs and therefore however they may hope his Majestys Clemency which by their undutiful Language bold and ungrateful Speeches and insolent Attempts in the Face of a Nation resolved to continue their Happiness by most constantly adhering to his Majesties Interests they have already too much tryed yet they are Fools to imagine his Majesty will suffer his innate Lenity and Gentleness to be the greatest Cruelty to his faithful Subjects by extending it to Persons obstinately bent upon his and their Ruin nor can they dream that a whole Nation now secured of all that 's dear to them will much longer bear the bantering Affronts and not only undutiful but even Treasonable Practices of such Men who so carry themselves as if they longed for nothing more than our Destruction And just as I was writing this came to my Hands that Paper pretended to be a Declaration from King James the Second to all his Loving Subjects in the Kingdom of England Perhaps there was never a greater piece of Insolence acted in any Nation than dispersing of these in a Kingdom where there is a King de facto upon the Throne and the Resentment the House of Commons has shewed is a sufficient proof of what I have just now said but for the Paper it self it carries all the Marks of Forgery that possibly can be for would ever the late King tell his Subjects of England of his kind usage to his Protestant Subjects in Ireland who are so infallibly convinc'd of the contrary For why should so many of the Bishops and Clergy so many People of all Conditions fly out of that Kingdom even since his arrival there and leave their Estates and Habitations and cast themselves upon the Charity of England for a present Subsistance if this Libel were true Why even at this very Time do they embrace all opportunities of Transporting themselves into this Island with great Joy and Thankfulness If Protestant Persons Fortunes Religion were in so much Safety what makes the Protestants of Londonderry c. rather venture their Lives in their own Defence and endure the Perils and hardship of a dangerous Siege if the Protestants there were in so great Security Surely the Forgers of this Libel imagine it possible to put out our very Eyes and to hood-wink us to Destruction Can we ever think that Protestants will ever be safe or apprehend themselves so where the French domineer at the rate they must certainly be presumed to do in Ireland For it 's very reasonable to conclude that seeing Men Ammunition Money and whatsoever is necessary for War cometh from the French that King will nay must rule the Roast We will therefore believe our own Intelligence much better then this piece of Forgery viz. that the very Papists of Ireland are so apprehensive of the French Tyranny that they begin to wish for the mild Government of Protestant England rather than ly under the insupportable Tyranny of Popish France As for the large Promises made to England upon a surrender these Forgerers invite us to I have said enough already that Popish Faith can never be more truned by Protestants and we are very well assured that if it were possible for the Host of Heaven to come down upon Earth to be Guarantee for the Fidelity of Papists to Protestants in any Treaties made with them relating to Religion they would notwithstanding upon the first safe Opportunity violate them and if these blessed Spirits should take upon them the Desence of the Guarantee and the Honour of it they would presently disown their Patronage and deprive them of the Honour of their being their Intercessors and charge them with being Favourers of the vilest Hereticks for we would desire but one Instance wherein ever Protestants were used kindly by Papists where ever it was in their Power to use them otherwise Go on then Great Sir in the perfecting of that which your Majesty hath so gloriously begun and so magnanimously undertaken and have had the assistance of the God of Truth to the Joy of these Nations to the Despair and Confusion of your Enemies to the Security of the Protestant World your Majestie hath the Hearts the Hands the Purses of your People at your Devotion you have a Parliament who having engaged whatsoever is worthy of Men of Honour of Fortune of Religion for your Assistance will never be wanting to enable you to compleat Yours Theirs Ours nay Europe's Happiness You have the greatest Security of the Protection of that God who is the Disposer of Kingdoms by whom Kings reign who hath hitherto blessed you with Success to a Miracle You have in fine the best and most Glorious Cause even the preserving of these Nations to which God and Nature and a General consent of your People have given you such a close Interest and near Relation from all the Calamities that could befall either the Souls Bodies or Fortunes of Us and our Posterity This I am sure is the hearty Prayer of all that are lovers either of our Civil or Religious Rights and our secure peaceable and lasting enjoyment of them that your Enemies may be clothed with shame but