43. A Brief Account of particulars occurring at the happy death of our late Soveraign Lord K. Ch. 2d in regard to Religion faithfully related by his then Assistant Mr. Jo. Huddleston 280 44. Some Reflections on His Majesty's Proclamation of the Twelfth of Feb. 1686 7. for a Toleration in Scotland together with the said Proclamation 281 45. His Majesty's Gracious Declaration to all his Loving Subjects for Liberty of Conscience 287 46. A Letter containing some Reflections on His Majesty's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience Dated April 4. 1687. 289 47. A Letter to a Dissenter upon Occasion of His Majesty's Late Gracious Declaration of Indulgence 294 48. The Anatomy of an Equivalent 300 49. A Letter from a Gentleman in the City to his Friend in the Countrey containing his Reasons for not reading the Declaration 309 50. An Answer to the City Minister's Letter from his Countrey Friend 314 51. A Letter from a Gentleman in Ireland to his Friend in London upon ocasion of a Pamphlet entituled A Vindication of the Present Government of Ireland under his Excellency Richard Earl of Tyrconnel 316 52. A Plain Account of the Persecution laid to the Charge of the Church of England 322 53. Abby and other Church Lands not yet assured to such possessors as are Roman-Catholicks dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of that Religion 326 54. The King's Power in Ecclesiastical matters truly stated 331 55. A Letter writ by Mijn Heer Fagel Pensioner of Holland to Mr. James Stewart Advocate giving an Account of the Prince and Princess of Orange's thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws 334 56. Reflections on Monsieur Fagel's Letter 338 57. Animadversions upon a pretended Answer to Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter 343 58. Some Reflections on a Discourse called Good Advice to the Church of England c. 363 59. The ill effects of Animosities 371 60. A Representation of the Threatning Dangers impending over Protestants in Great-Britain With an Account of the Arbitrary and Popish ends unto which the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland are designed 380 61. The Declaration of his Highness William Henry by the Grace of God Prince of Orange c. of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of England for preserving of the Protestant Religion and for restoring the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland 420 62. His Highnesses Additional Declaration 426 63. The then supposed Third Declaration of his Royal Highness pretended to be signed at his head Quarters at Sherborn-Castle November 28. 1688. but was written by another Person tho yet unknown 427 64. The Reverend Mr. Samuel Johnson's Paper in the year 1686. for which he was sentenc'd by the Court of Kings-Bench Sir Edward Herbert being Lord Chief Justice and Sir Francis Wythens pronouncing the Sentence to stand Three times on the Pillory and to be whipp'd from Newgate to Tyburn which barbarous Sentence was Executed 428 65. Several Reasons for the establishment of a standing Army and Dissolving the Militia by the said Mr. Johnson 429 66. To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty the Humble Petition of William Archbishop of Canterbury and divers of the suffragan Bishops of that Province then present with him in behalf of themselves and others of their absent Brethren and of the Clergy of their respective Diocesses with His Majesty's Answer 430 67. The Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the calling of a free Parliament together with His Majesty's Gracious Answer to their Lordships Ib. 68. The Prince of Orange's Letter to the English Army 431 69. Prince George his Letter to the King 432 70. The Lord Churchill's Letter to the King 432 71. The Princess Ann of Denmark's Letter to the Queen 433 72. A Memorial of the Protestants of the Church of England presented to their Royal Hignesses the Prince and Princess of Orange 433 73. Admiral Herbert's Letter to all Commanders of Ships and Seamen in His Majesty's Fleet. 434 74. The Lord Delamere's Speech 434 75. An Engagement of the Noblemen Knights and Gentlemen at Exeter to assist the Prince of Orange in the defence of the Protestant Religion Laws and Liberties of the People of England Scotland and Ireland 435 76. The Declaration of the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty at the Rendezvouz at Nottingham November 22. 1688. 436 77. His Grace the Duke of Norfolk's Speech to the Mayor of Norwich on the 1st of December in the Market-place of Norwich 437 78. The Speech of the Prince of Orange to some principal Gentlemen of Somersetshire and Dorsetshire on their coming to join his Highness at Exeter Novemb. 15. 1688. 437 79. The True Copy of a Paper delivered by the Lord Devonshire to the Mayor of Darby where he Quartered Novemb. 21. 1688. 438 80. A Letter from a Gentleman at Kings-Lynn Decemb. 7. 1688. to his Friend in London With an Address to his Grace the most Noble Henry Duke of Norfolk Lord Marshall of England Ibid. 81. His Grace's Answer with another Letter from Lynn-Regis giving the D. of Norfolk's 2d Speech there Decemb. 10. 1688. 439 82. The Declaration of the Lord 's Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guild-Hall Decemb. 11. 1688. Ibid. 83. A Paper delivered to his Highness the Prince of Orange by the Commissioners sent by His Majesty to treat with him and his Highness's Answer 1688. 440 84. The Recorder of Bristoll's Speech to his Highness the Prince of Orange Monday Jan. 7. 1688. 441. 85. The Humble Address of the Lieutenancy of the City of London to his Highness the Prince of Orange Decemb. 12. 1688. 442 86. The Humble Address of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common-Council Assembled to his Highness the Prince of Orange 443 87. The Speech of Sir Geo. Treby Knight Recorder of the Honourable City of London to his Highness the Prince of Orange Decemb. 20. 1688. Ibid. 88. His Highness the Prince of Orange's Speech to the Scotch Lords and Gentlemen with their Advice and his Highness's Answer with a true Account of what past at their meeting in the Council Chamber at White-Hall Jan. 7. 1688 9. 444 89. The Emperor of Germany's Account of K. James's Misgovernment in joining with the K. of France the Common Enemy of Christendom in his Letter to K. James 446 90. The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster concerning the Misgovernment of K. James and filling up the Throne Presented to K. William and Q. Mary by the Right Honourable the Marquess of Hallifax Speaker to the House of Lords with His Majesty's Most Gracious Answer thereunto 447 91. A Proclamation Declaring William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange to be King and Queen of England France and Ireland c. 449 92. The Declaration of the Estates of Scotland concerning the Misgovernment of K. James the 7th
which if not restrained in time do not give us leave to look back till it is too late Consider this in the Case of your Aâ—ger against the Church of England and take warning by their Mistake in the same kind when after the late King's Restauration they preserved so long the bitter taste of your rough usage to them in other times that it made them forget their Interest and sacrifice it to their Revenge Either you will blame this Proceeding in them and for that reason not follow it or if you allow it you have no reason to be offended with them so that you must either dismiss your Anger or lose your Excuse except you should argue more partially than will be supposed of Men of your Morality and Understanding If you had now to do with those Rigid Prelates who made it a Matter of Conscience to give you the least Indulgence but kept you at an uncharitable distance and even to your more reasonable Scruples continued stiff and exorable the Argument might be fairer on your side but since the common Danger hath so laid open that Mistake that all the former Haughtiness towards you is for ever extinguish'd and that it hath turned the Spirit of Persecution into a Spirit of Peace Charity and Condescention shall this happy Change only affect the Church of England And are you so in Love with seperation as not to be moved by this Example It ought to be followed were there no other reason than that it is a Vertue but when besides that it is become necessary to your preservation it is impossible to fail the having its Effect upon you If it should be said that the Church of England is never Humble but when she is out of Power and therefore loseth the Right of being believed when she pretendeth to it the Answer is First it would be an uncharitable Objection and very much miss-timed an unseasonable Triumph not only ungenerous but unsafe So that in these respects it cannot be urged without scandal even though it could be said with Truth Secondly This is not so in Fact and the Argument must fall being built upon a False Foundation for whatever may be told you at this very hour and in the heat and glare of your present sun-shine the Church of England can in a moment bring Clouds again and turn the Royal Thunder upon your Heads blow you off the Stage with a Breath if she would give but a smile or a kind Word the least Glimpse of her Complyance would throw you back into the state of Suffering and draw upon you all the Atrears of severity which have accrued during the time of this kindness to you and yet the Church of England with all her Faults will not allow her self to be rescued by such unjustifiable means but chuseth to bear the weight of Power rather than lie under the burthen of being Criminal It cannot be said that she is unprovoked Books and Letters come out every day to call for Answers yet she will not be stirred From the supposed Authors and the Stile one would swear they were Undertakers and had made a Contract to fall out with the Church of England There are Lashes in every Address Challenges to draw the Pen in every Pamphlet in short the fairest occasions in the World given to quarrel but she wisely distinguisheth between the Body of Dissenters whom she will suppose to Act as they do with no ill intent and these small Skirmishers pickt and sent out to Pickqueer and to begin a Fray amongst the Protestants for the entertainment as well as the advantage of the Church of Rome This Conduct is so good that it will be scandalous not to Applaud it It is not equal dealing to blame our Adversaries for doing ill and not commend them when they do well To hate them because they Persecuted and not to be reconciled to them when they are ready to suffer rather than receive all the Advantages that can be gained by a Criminal Complyance is a Principle no sort of Christians can own since it would give an Objection to them never to be Answered Think a little who they were that promoted your former Persecutions and then consider how it will look to be angry with the Instruments and at the same time to make a League with the Authors of your sufferings Have you enough considered what will be expected from you Are you ready to stand in every Borough by a Vertue of a Conge d'estire and instead of Election be satisfied if you are returned Will you in Parliament justifie the Dispensing Power with all its consequences and repeal the Test by which you will make way for the repeal of all the Laws that were made to preserve your Religion and to Enact others that shall destroy it Are you disposed to change the Liberty of Debate into the Merit of Obedience and to be made Instruments to Repeal or Enact Laws when the Roman Consistory are Lords of the Articles Are you so linked with your new Friends as to reject any Indulgence a Parliament shall offer you if it shall not be so Comprehensive as to include the Papists in it Consider that the implyed Conditions of your new Treaty are no less than that you are to do every thing you are desired without examining and that for this pretended Liberty of Conscience your real Freedom is to be Sacrificed Your former Faults hang like Chains still about you you are let loose only upon Bayl the first Act of Non-complyance sendeth you to jaybagain You may see that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the Legality of this power which you are to Justifie since they being so very earnest to get it Established by a Law and the doing such very hard things in order as they think to obtain it is a clear Evidence that they do not think that the single Power of the Crown is in this Case a good Foundation especially when this is done under a Prince so very tender of all the Rights of Soveraignty that he would think it a diminution to his Prerogative where he conceiveth it strong enough to go alone to call in the Legislative help to strengthen and support it You have formerly blamed the Church of England and not without reason for going so far as they did in their Compliance and yet as soon as they stopped you see they are not only Deserted but Prosecuted Conclude then from this Example that you must either break off your Friendship or resolve to have no Bounds in it If they do not succeed in their Design they will leave you first if they do you must either leave them when it will be too late for your Safety or else after the squeaziness of starting at a Surplice you must be forced to swallow Transubstantiation Remember that the other day those of the Church of England were Trimmers for enduring you and now by a sudden Turn you are become the Favourites do not deceive
be grantable against the Commissioners upon the Statute of 2 H. 5. if they do not deliver the Copy of the Libel to the Party Whereto they all answered That that Statute is intended where the Ecclesiastical Judge proceeds ex Officio ore tenus Thirdly Whether it were an Offence punishable and what Punishment they deserved who framed Petitions and collected a multitude of hands thereto to prefer to the King in a publick cause as the Puritans had done with an intimation to the King That if he denied their Sute many thousands of his Subjects would be discontented Whereto all the Justices answered That it was an Offence finable at Discretion and very near to Treason and Felony in the Punishment For they tended to the raising of Sedition Rebellion and Discontent among the People To which Resolution all the Lords agreed And then many of the Lords declared That some of the Puritans had raised a false Rumor of the King how he intended to grant a Toleration to Papists Which Offence the Justices conceived to be heinously finable by the Rules of the Common Law either in the Kings Bench or by the King and his Councel or now since the Statute of 3 H. 7. in the Star-Chamber And the Lords severally declared how the King was discontented with the said false Rumor and had made but the Day before a Protestation unto them that he never intended it and that he would spend the last drop of Bloud in his Body before he would do it and prayed that before any of his Issue should maintain any other Religion than what he truly professed and maintained that God would take them out of the World I doubt not but yourself and every English Protestant will joyn with this Royal Petitioner and will heartily say Amen But you desire to know if I think the Resolution of the Judges in this case ought to deter us from humbly Petitioning his Majesty that this Parliament may effectually sit on the 26th day of January next In order to this give me leave to observe to you As it is most certain that a great Reverence is due to the Unanimous Opinion of all the Judges so there is a great difference to be put between the Authority of their Judgments when solemnly given in Cases depending before them and their sudden and extrajudicial Opinions The Case of Ship-money it self is not a better proof of this than that which you have now read as you will now see if you consider distinctly what they say to the several Questions proposed to them As to their Answer to the first Question it much concerns the Reverend Clergy to enquire whither they did not mistake in it And whether the King by his Proclamation can make new constitutions and oblige them to obedience under the Penalty of Deprivation Should it be so and should this unhappy Kingdom ever suffer under the Reign of a Popish Prince he might easily rid himself of such obstinate Hereticks and leave his Ecclesiastical Preferments open for Men of better Principles He will need only to publish a Proclamation that Spittle and Salt should be used in Baptism that Holy-water should be used and Images set up in Churches and a few more such things as these and the Business were effectually done But if you will believe my Lord Chief Justice Cook 12. Co. 19. 12. Co. 49. he will tell you that it was agreed by all the Judges upon Debate Hill 4to Jacobi that the King cannot change his Ecclesiastical Law and you may easily remember since the whole Parliament declared That he could not alter or suspend them I have the uniform Opinion of all the Judges given upon great Deliberation Co. Mag. Char. 616. Mich. 4to Jac. to justifie me if I say that our Judges here were utterly mistaken in the Answer which they gave to the second Question I will not cite the numerous subsequent Authorities since every man knows that it is the constant practice of Westminster-Hall at this Day to grant Prohibitions upon refusal to give a Copy of Articles where the Proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts are ex Officio You see there was a kind of ill Fate upon the Judges this day as usually there was when met in the Star-chamber and that they were very unfortunate in answering two of the three Questions proposed to them let us go on to consider what does principally concern us at present their Answer to the last Question You have just done reading it and therefore I need not repeat to you either the Doubt or the Solution of it but one may be allowed to say modestly that it was a sudden Answer 'T is possible the Lords then present were well enough inform'd when they were told that such kind of Petitioning was an Offence next to Treason and Felony but I dare be so bold as to say That at this Day not a Lawyer in England would be the wiser for such an Answer they would be confounded and not know whether it were Misprision of Treason which seems an Offence nearest to Treason or Petty-larceny which seems nearest to Felony You will be apt to tell me that I mistake my Lords the Judges and they spoke not of the nature of the crime but the manner of the Punishment but this will mend the matter but little for since the Punishments of those two Crimes are so very different you are still as much in the dark as ever what these ambiguous words mean Well but we will agree that the Crime about which the Enquiry was made was a very great one When Men arrive to such Insolence as to threaten their Prince it will be but little excuse to them to call their Menaces by the soft and gentle Name of Petitions But you would know for what and in what manner we are at present to Petition 13 Car. 2. c. 5 and I will give you a plain and infallible Rule It is the Statute 13 Car. 2. c. 5. Be it enacted c. that no person or persons whatsoever shall solicite labour or procure the getting of hands or other consent of any persons above the number of twenty or more to any Petition Complaint Remonstance Declaration or other Addresses to the King or both or either Houses of Parliament for alteration of matters established by Law in Church or State unless the matter thereof have been first consented to and ordered by three or more Justices of the County or by the major part of the Grand Jury of the County or Division of the County where the same matter shall arise at their publick Assizes or General Quarter-Sessions or if arising in London by the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in Common Council assembled and that no person or persons whatsoever shall repair to His Majesty or both or either of the Houses of Parliament upon Pretence of presenting or delivering any Petition Complaint Remonstrance or Declaration or other Addresses accompanied with excessive Number of People not at
Is he a wise man who if his house be falling by reason of too much weight upon the roof will lay more upon it rather than propt it up and take off some of the weight So they who take the Church to consist of Ceremonies must pardon me that I am not of their opinion since the word of God warrants no such thing and my reason tells me that they are too much interested in the cause to be fit judges for with them he is accounted a good Son of the Church who keeps a great stir about Ceremonies though he live never so ill a life and perhaps is drunk when he performs his Devotion but if a man seem to be indifferent as to Ceremonies and make them no more than indeed they be yet in Practice Conforms more than he that makes a great noise about them though he live never so godly a life and as near as he can to the rule of God's word yet he is a Fanatick and an enemy to the Church but God Almighty tells us he will have mercy and not Sacrifice Gentlemen They who accuse me for an enemy to the King and Church have left you out of the story but I hope I shall not forget you but remember on whose errand I am sent and as I have hitherto stuck to your interest I hope nothing will draw me aside from it and if I know my own heart I am perswaded that neither rewards threats hopes nor fears will prevail upon me I desire nothing but to promote God's glory and the interest of the King and people and if it shall please God to let me see the Protestant Religion and Government established I shall think I have lived long enough and I shall be willing at that instant to resign my breath Gentlemen I thought good to say this to you and I thank you for your patience and hope I shall so behave my self in your Service that I shall make it appear I am sensible of the honour you have done me I humbly thank you all An Account of the Proceedings at the Sessions for the City of Westminster against Thomas Whitfield Scrivener John Smallbones Woodmonger and William Laud Painter for Tearing a Petition prepared to be presented to the King's Majesty for the Sitting of the Parliament With an Account of the said Petition presented on the 13th instant and His Majesty's Gracious Answer IT being the undoubted Right of the Subjects of England Vide the Resolutions of the Law Cook Jurisdict of Courts 79. Hobart 220. Vel. Magna Chart. Exl. Spencer 51. Vide the Proclamations of K. Charles I. and warranted by the Law of the Land and the general Practice of all former Times in an humble manner to apply themselves to His Majesty in the Absence of Parliaments by Petition for the Redress of their Grievances and for the obtaining such things as they apprehend necessary or beneficial to the safety and well being of the Nation And it being their Duty to which they are bound by the expres words of the Oath of Allegiance * I do Swear from my Heart That I will hear Faith and true Allegiance to His Majesty His Heirs and Successors and Him and Them will Defend to the uttermost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against His or Their Persons Their Crown and Dignity And will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto His Majesty His Heirs and Successors all Treasons and Trayterous Conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them to represent to Him any danger which they apprehend Threatning His Royal Person or His Government divers Persons in and about the City of Westminster considering the too apparent and unspeakable Danger His Majesty and His Kingdoms are in from the Hellish Plots and Villainous Conspiracies of the Bloody Papists and their Adherents and conceiving no sufficient or at least so fit Remedy could be provided against it but by the Parliament by whom alone several Persons accused of these accursed Designs can be brought to Tryal did prepare and sign a Petition humbly representing to His Majesty the imminent danger His Royal Person the Protestant Religion and the Government of this Nation were in from that most damnable and hellish Popish Plot branched forth into several the most Horrid Villainies For which several of the principal Conspirators stand impeached by Parliament and thereby humbly praying that the Parliament might Sit upon the 26th of January to try the Offenders and to Redress the important Crievances no otherways to be redressed of which Thomas Whitfield John Smallbenes and William Laud Inhabitants in Westminster taking notice upon the 20th day of December last they sent to Mr. William Horsley who had signed and promoted the Petition and in whose custody it was to bring or send it to them for that they desired to sign it And thereupon Mr. Horsley attended them and producing the Petition in which many Persons had joyned he delivered it at their request to be by them read and signed but Mr. Whitfield immediately tore it in pieces and threw it towards the Fire and Smallbones catching it up said That he would not take 10 s. for the Names and then they declared that they sent for it for that very purpose and owned themselves all concerned in the design Upon Mr. Horsley's complaint hereof to a Justice of the Peace a Warrant was granted against them and they being taken thereupon after examination of the matter were bound to appear and answer it at the next quarter Sessions of the Peace for the City of Westminster and upon Friday the 9th of January instant the Sessions being holden and there being present several Justices of the Peace that are eminent Lawyers the matter was brought before them and the Grand Jury Indicted the said Whitfield Smallbones and Laud as followeth viz. The City Borough and Town of Westminster in the County of Middlesex THe Jurors for our Soveraign Lord the King upon their Oath do present that whereas the Subjects and Liege People of the Kings and Queens of this Realm of England by the Laws and Customs of the Realm have used and been accustomed to represent their Publick Grievances by Petition or by any other submissive way And that the 20th day of December in the one and Thirtieth Year of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord Charles the Second by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith c. at the Parish of St. Martin's in the Fields within the Liberty of the Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter of the City Borough and Town of Westminster in the County of Middlesex a Petition written in paper was prepared and Subscribed with the hands of divers the said King's Subjects and Liege People to the Jury unknown and to our said Soveraign Lord King Charles the Second Directed and to our said Soveraign Lord
do live wicked lives the Lord in mercy convert you and shew you your danger for I as little thought to come to this as any man that hears me this day and I bless God I have no more deserved it from the hands of men than the Child that sucks at his Mothers breast I bless my God for it I do say I have been a sinner against my God and he hath learned me Grace ever since I have been a Prisoner I bless my God for a Prison I bless my God for Afflictions I bless my God that ever I was restrain'd for I never knew my self till he had taken me out of the World Therefore you that have your liberties time and precious opportunities be up and be doing for God and for your Souls every one of you To his Son Where is my dear Child Mr. Sheriff I made one request to you you gave me an imperfect Answer you said you were of the best Reformed Church in the world the Church of England according to the best Reformation in the world I desire you for the satisfaction of the world to declare what Church that is whether Presbyterian or Independant or the Church of England or what Colledge Good Mr. Sheriff for your satisfaction for 20 years and above I was under the Presbyterian Ministry till his Majesties Restauration then I was conformable to the Church of England when that was restored and so continued till such time as I saw Persecution upon the Dissenting People and undue things done in their Meeting-places then I went among them to know what kind of people those were and I take God to witness since that time I have used their Meetings viz. the presbyterians others very seldom and the Church of England I did hear Dr. Tillotson not above three weeks before I was taken I heard the Church of England as frequently as I heard the Dissenters and never had any prejudice God is my witness against either but always heartily desired that they might unite and be Lovers and Friends and I had no prejudice against any man and truly I am afraid that it is not for the Nations good that there should be such Heart-burnings between them That some of the Church of England will preach that the Presbyterians are worse than the Papists God doth know that what I say I speak freely from my heart I have found many among them truly serving God and so I have of all the rest that have come into my company Men without any manner of Design but to serve God serve his Majesty and keep their Liberties and Properties men that I am certain are not of vicious lives I found no Dammers or those kind of People amongst them or at least few of them To his Son Kissing him several times with great passion Dear Child Farewell the Lord have mercy upon thee Good people let me have your Prayers to God Almighty to receive my Soul And then he Prayed and as soon as he had done spake as followeth The Lord have mercy upon my Enemies and I beseech you good People whoever you are and the whole World that I have offended to forgive me whomever I have offended in word or deed I ask every man's pardon and I forgive the World with all my soul all the Injuries I have received and I beseech God Almighty forgive those poor Wretches who have cast away their souls or at least endangered them to ruine this body of mine I beseech God that they may have a sight of their Sins and that they may find mercy at his hands Let my blood speak the justice of my Cause I have done And God have mercy upon you all To Mr. Crosthwait Pray Sir my Service to Dr. Hall and Dr. Reynall and thank them for all their kindnesses to me I thank you Sir for your kindness The Lord bless you all Mr. Sheriff God be with you God be with you all good People The Executioner Ketch desired his pardon and he said I do forgive you The Lord have mercy on my Soul The SPEECH of the Late Lord RUSSEL to the SHERIFFS Together with the PAPER deliver'd by him to them at the place of Execution on July 21. 1683. Mr. SHERIFF I Expected the Noise would be such that I could not be very well heard I was never fond of much speaking much less now Therefore I have set down in this Paper all that I think fit to leave behind me God knows how far I was always from Designs against the King's Person or of altering the Government and I still pray for the Preservation of both and of the Protestant Religion I am told that Captain Walcot has said some things concerning my knowledge of the Plot I know not whether the Report is true or not I hope it is not For to my knowledg I never saw him or spake with him in my whole Life and in the Words of a dying Man I profess I know of no Plot either against the King's Life or the Government But I have now done with this World and am going to a better I forgive all the World and I thank God I die in Charity with all Men and I wish all sincere Protestants may love one another and not make way for Popery by their Animosities The PAPER deliver'd to the SHERIFFS I Thank God I find my self so composed and prepared for death and my Thoughts so fixed on another World that I hope in God I am now quite weaned from setting my heart on this Yet I cannot forbear now in setting down in Writing a fuller Account of my Condition to be left behind me than I 'll venture to say at the place of Execution in the noise and clutter that is like to be there I bless God heartily for those many Blessings which he in his infinite Mercy has bestowed upon me through the whole course of my Life That I was born of worthy good Parents and had the Advantages of a Religious Education which I have often thank'd God very heartily for and look'd upon as an invaluable Blessing For even when I minded it least it still hung about me and gave me checks and has now for many years so influenced and possessed me that I feel the happy Effects of it in this my extremity in which I have been so wonderfully I thank God supported that neither my imprisonment nor the fear of Death have been able to discompose me to any degree but on the contrary I have found the Assurances of the Love and Mercy of God in and through my blessed Redeemer in whom only I trust and I do not question but that I am going to partake of that fulness of Joy which is in his presence the hopes thereof does so wonderfully delight me that I reckon this as the happiest time of my Life tho' others may look upon it as the saddest I have lived and now die of the Reformed Religion a true and sincere Protestant and in the Communion of the Church
discourage any kind of favour towards them save that which the concession whereof would not only be inconsistent with the peace and safety of those of the Reformed Religion in England but which might enflame the Nation to such Resentments as would in all likelihood both endanger his Majesties Person and Crown and come at last to issue in the reducement of the Roman Catholicks to worse circumstances than they have hitherto been acquainted with But to proceed with our Author to whom it is so natural to act foolishly and with sauciness and injustice that neither the Character he is said to bear nor the Quality of the Persons of whom he speaks can either restrain his intemperance or correct his rudeness and indiscretion For Monsieur Fagel having said that he believes there are many Roman Catholicks who under the present state of Affairs will not be very desirous to be in Publick Offices and Employments nor use any attempts against those of the Reformed Religion and that not only because they know it to be contrary to Law but lest it should at some other time prove prejudicial to their Persons and States Our Author is so unjust as well as imprudent as to call this a menacing not only of all the Non-conformists and Roman Catholicks in England but a threatning of his Majesty and an insulting over him And from thence he takes occasion to add that he hopes God will inable his Majesty to repress and prevent the effects of these menaces and furnish him with means of mortifying those who do thus threaten and insult over him It certainly argues a strange weakness and distemper of mind to call so modest and soft an expression both a menacing of the King and of all his Catholick Subjects when I dare say it proclaimeth the sense of all among the Papists who are endowed with any measure of Wisdom and is nothing else save a Declaration of the measure by which they do at this day regulate and conduct themselves But the injustice of our Author towards Their Highnesses in his Reflections upon the forementioned expression of the Pensionary's is his intending them by the persons that do threaten his Majesty and insult over him For did he take Mijn Heer Fagel for the only guilty person in reference to this Phrase which he miscalls a Menace it would be a strange detracting in him from the Power and Glory of his Majesty of Great Brittain to wish him sufficient means whereby to shun the effects of a Gentleman 's threatning whose highest Figure in the World is meerly to be a Minister in a Republick Nor would he bring down his Master to so low a level as to make it the highest Object of his Hopes concerning so great a Monarch that he shall be able to mortifie a person who whatsoever his Merit be yet his Fortune is to fill no sublimer a Post So that it can be no other save the Prince and Princess whom our Author in his usual way of injustice petulancy and indiscretion does here character represent and intend And what he thereupon means by the Kings having power in his hands and by his hoping that God would furnish him with means by which he may mortifie them is not a matter of difficult penetration even by persons of the most ordinary capacities For the several methods that have been projected and are still carrying on for the debarring them from the Succession to the Imperial Crowns of England Scotland and Ireland to which they have so Just and Hereditary a Right are sufficient to detect unto us what our Author intends and serve as a Key whereby to open the scope and meaning of his Expressions But whatsoever the Papal and Jesuitick Endeavours may be for the obstructing and preventing their Ascending the Thrones of Great Brittain I dare say that all the effects they will have will be only the discovering the folly and malice of those that attempt it and that they can never be able to compass and accomplish it For as their Highnesses have both that interest in the Love and Veneration of all Protestants and so indisputable a Title that it is impossible they should be precluded either by Force or in a way to which their Enemies may affix the Name of Legal so there is no great cause to apprehend or fear their being supplanted by their King 's having Male Issue of a vigour to live considering both his Majesties condition and the Queens which is such that they can never communicate bona stamina vitae And for the Papists being able to Banter a suppositious Brat upon the Nation tho' there are many among them villanous enough to attempt it we have not only the watchfulness of Divine Providence to rely upon for preventing it but there are many faithful and waking Eyes that will be ready and industrious to discover the Cheat. And if the People once perceive that there hath been a contrivance carried on for putting so base an affront upon a noble and generous Kingdom and of committing so horrid a wrong against such Vertuous and Excellent Princes I do not know but that their Resentment of it may rise so high as that all who are discovered to have been accessory unto it may undergo the like fate that they of old did who were found to have been conscious and contributory unto the thrusting the Eunuch Smerdis into the Persian Throne Nor do I in the least doubt but that the same Righteous Wise and Merciful God who prevented the like villany when designed in the time of Queen Mary and which was advanced so far that some Priests had the wickedness and impudence both to give thanks in the publick Churches for her Majesties safe delivery of a Prince and also to describe the Beauty and Features of the Babe tho' all she had gone with amounted only to a Tympany of Wind and Water I say that I do not question but that the same God will out of his Immense Grace and Sapience find ways and methods of which there are many within the compass of his Infinite Understanding by which so hellish a piece of villany if there be any such projected and promoting may be brought into light and disappointed And truly when I consider the Christian and Royal Vertues wherewith their Highnesses are imbued and how they are furnished with all the Moral Intellectual and Religious accomplishments that are requisite for adapting them to weild Scepters and which render them not only so agreeable to the necessities and desires of all good people but so admirably qualified to answer both the present posture of Affairs in Europe and the Exigencies of those that are oppressed and afflicted I grow into a confidence that as the Church of God both in Brittain and elsewhere and the circumstances in which so many Countreys are involved do bespeak and crave their Exaltation to the Thrones of the Brittish Dominions so that they are both destined of God unto them and will in due
never violated laid to pledge for their relief and ease but in that their Interest as well as their Principles will oblige them to be compassionate and tender to all sorts of Protestants and if they cannot be so Fortunate as to unite them yet to exercise equal kindness and favour towards them Having examined what our Author in his impertinent way venteth in unjust Reflections against their Highnesses and having in some measure chastned him for them tho' not to the Degree he does deserve I come now in the third place to call him to an account for his calumniating the States of these Provinces and for his endeavouring to possess the minds of their Popish Subjects with dissatisfaction and prejudice towards them And if he be the person whom most men take him for tho' he may have herein acted suitably to himself yet he hath behaved disagreeably to his character and unworthy of the Post which his Master hath placed him in Nor need we from henceforth to doubt but that he does all the ill Offices he can between his Majesty of Great Brittain and this Government seeing he hath by slanders destitute of all Foundation most maliciously studied to raise differences betwixt them and their own Subjects And if the Intelligence which he transmits to Whitehall be as equally distant from truth and sincerity as the Memoirs are which he hath here published we may easily conjecture what little credit ought to be given unto it tho' at the same time we cannot but discern the end that it must be shappen and designed unto Nor was there the least occasion administred by mijn Heer Fagel in his Letter by which our Author could be provoked to attack these States with so much rudeness injustice and falshood as he hath done in his Answer For all that the Pensionary had said and which it seems threw our Author into a raging fit was only that their Highnesses could consent that the Papists in England Scotland and Ireland should be suffered to exercise their Religion with as much freedom as is allowed them in these Provinces in which they enjoy a full liberty of Conscience And as the time hath been and may hereafter come Wherein the English Roman Catholicks would have thought and may again account such a Liberty for a happiness so I do not understand if the condition of the Roman Catholicks in these Countreys be as our Author describes it with what consistency either to Reason or with themselves the Papists in England should have so often heretofore in their Pleas for a Toleration have made the Liberty vouchsafed their Brethren in these Provinces not only a motive for their own being capable of Indulgence but to have represented it as the largest measure of the freedom they desired and which they would have been thankful for Seeing this Gentleman according to his accustomed manner of truth and ingenuity takes upon him to assure us That as there can be no greater persecution than what the Papists undergo in the exercise of their Religion in Guelderland Freesland Zeland and the Province of Groningue so that the Liberty which they even enjoy in Holland is so mean and inconsiderable that it doth not deliver them from being subject to daily fines and molestations Surely this man is either very unacquainted with what is done upon the account of Religion in other parts of the World or else he must needs think that the most brutal severities to some are Acts of Merit while gentle restrictions upon others are mortal Crimes otherwise he could never write at this ignorant and extravagant rate wherein all persons must discern his folly as well as insincerity and neglect of truth For we have too many deplorable evidences daily before our Eyes besides those which arrive with us by reports of unquestionable credit of a stranger kind of Persecution exercised towards those of the Reformed Religion in France and Piedmont than any which the Roman Catholicks in these Provinces can be alledged to be under except it be by one of our Author's veracity and discretion Neither needs there any other Refutation of the calumny with which he asperseth the Supream and Subordinate Magistrates of this Country in reference to the treating their Popish Subjects with horrid Severities nor a clearer proof that those of the Romish Communion do esteem themselves to be in a condition of peace freedom and ease under this Government than that of their behaviour during the late War carried on by the French King against these States which he gave out both at Rome and at several other Courts in Europe to have been undertaken in favour and for the restoring of the Roman Catholick Religion For had they lain under that grievous persecution and those tragical hardships in the practice of it which our Author would impose the belief of upon the World they would not have failed to welcome that Monarch as their happy Deliverer and would have united in a general Insurrection against the States for their having been Tyrannous over them But instead of that most of them acquitted themselves with the same Zeal for the support of this Government and in defence of their Country that other Subjects did Which demonstrates beyond all controul that they do not judge themselves to be in so wretched and miserable circumstances as this bold and calumnious Person represents them to be And whereas Monsieur Fagel in justification of the necessity of preserving the Test Laws by which the Papists are precluded from Employments and Places of Trust and to rectifie a mistake in Mr. Stewart about his conceiving the Roman Catholicks to continue capable of bearing publick Offices in this Commonwealth had said that by the Laws of this Republick they are expresly shut out from all the Employments both of Policy and Justice Our Author does hereupon with the highest Injustice and with all the acrimony he can accuse the States not only of departing from the express Terms of the Pacification of Gant but of violating the Articles of the Vnion at Utrecht which was the Foundation upon which this Government was both originally erected and doth still subsist And with his wonted degree of knowledge and prudence he further adds That the Provinces and most of the Cities would not have entred into the foresaid Vnion but upon condition that they of the Roman Catholick Religion should at all times possess the Government And particularly that Amsterdam had it stipulated unto them under the Guaranty of the Prince of Orange that none of the Reformed Religion should be allowed a Place to assemble in either within the Walls or without so far as the Jurisdiction of the City did extend One would have little expected that a person living in the Communion of the Romish Church as our Author professeth himself to do should upbraid these States with the violation of Articles relating unto a Grant made unto any for their Security in the free Exercise of their Religion at a season when
by Hundreds of Thousands at once 4. Because the Dragooners have made more Converts than all the Bishops and Clergy of France 5. The Parliament ought to establish one standing Army at the least because indeed there will be need of Two that one of them may defend the People from the other 6. Because it is a thousand pities that a brave Popish Army should be a Riot 7. Unless it be Established by Act of Parliament The Justices of Peace will be forced to suppress it in their own Defence for they will be loth to forfeit an hundred Pounds every day they rise out of Complement to a Popish Rout. 13 H. 4. c. 7. 2 H. 5. c. 8. 8. Because a Popish Army is a Nullity For all Papists are utterly disabled and punishable besides from bearing any Office in Camp Troop Band or Company of Soldiers and are so far disarmed by Law that they cannot wear a Sword so much as in their Defence without the allowance of four Justices of the Peace of the County And then upon a March they will be perfectly Inchanted for they are not able to stir above five Miles from their own Dwelling-house 3. Jac. 5. Sect. 8.27 28 29.35 Eliz. 2.3 Jac. 5. Sect. 7. 9. Because Persons utterly disabled by Law are utterly Unauthorized and therefore the void Commissions of Killing and Slaying in the Hands of Papists can only enable them to Massacre and Murder To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and divers of the Suffragan Bishops of that Province now present with him in behalf of themselves and others of their absent Brethren and of the Clergy of their respective Diocesses Humbly sheweth THAT the great averseness they find in themselves to the distributing and publishing in all their Churches your Majesty's late Declaration for Liberty of Conscience proceeds neither from any want of Duty and Obedience to your Majesty our Holy Mother the Church of England being both in her Principles and in her constant Practice unquestionably Loyal and having to her great Honour been more than once publickly acknowledg'd to be so by your Gracious Majesty Nor yet from any want of due tenderness to Dissenters in relation to whom they are willing to come to such a Temper as shall be thought fit when that Matter shall be considered and settled in Parliament and Convocation But among many other Considerations from this especially because that Declaration is founded upon such a Dispensing Power as has been often declared Illegal in Parliament and particularly in the years 1662 and 1672. and in the beginning of your Majesty's Reign and is a matter of so great Moment and Consequence to the whole Nation both in Church and State that your Petitioners cannot in Prudence Honour or Conscience so far make themselves Parties to it as the distribution of it all over the Nation and the solemn Publication of it once and again even in God's House and in the Time of his Divine Service must amount to in common and reasonable Construction Your Petitioners therefore most Humbly and Earnestly beseech your Majesty that you will be ciously pleased not to insist upon their Distributing and Reading your Majesty's said Declaration And Your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever Pray Will. Cant. Will. Asaph Fr Ely Jo. Cicestr Tho. Bathon Wellen. Tho. Peterburgen Jonath Bristol His Majesties Answer was to this effect I Have heard of this before but did not believe it I did not expect this from the Church of England especially from some of you If I change my Mind you shall hear from me if not I expect my Command shall be obeyed The PETITION of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the Calling of a Free Parliament Together with his Majesty's Gracious Answer to their Lordships To the KING 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whose Names are subscribed May it please your Majesty WE your Majesty's most loyal Subjects in a deep sense of the Miseries of a War now breaking forth in the Bowels of this your Kingdom and of the Danger to which your Majesty's Sacred Person is thereby like to be exposed and also of the Distractions of your People by reason of their present Grievances do think our selves bound in Conscience of the duty we owe to God and our holy Religion to your Majesty and our Country most humbly offer to your Majesty That in our Opinion the only visible Way to preserve your Majesty and this your Kingdom would be the Calling of a Parliament Regular and Free in all its Circumstances We therefore do most earnestly beseech your Majesty That you would be graciously pleased with all speed to call such a Parliament wherein we shall be most ready to promote such Counsels and Resolutions of Peace and Settlement in Church and State as may conduce to your Majesty's Honour and Safety and to the quieting the Minds of your People We do likewise humbly beseech your Majesty in the mean time to use such means for the preventing the Effusion of Christian Blood as to your Majesty shall seem most meet And your Petitioners shall ever pray c. W. Cant. Grafton Ormond Dorset Clare Clarendon Burlington Anglesey Rochester Newport Nom. Ebor. W. Asaph Fran. Ely Tho. Roffen Tho. Petriburg Tho. Oxon. Paget Chandois Osulston Presented by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Arch-Bishop of York Elect the Bishop of Ely and the Bishop of Rochester the 17th of November 1688. His Majesty's most Gracious Answer My LORDS What You ask of Me I most passionately desire And I promise You upon the Faith of a King That I will have a Parliament and such an One as You ask for as soon as ever the Prince of Orange has quitted this Realm For How is it possible a Parliament should be Free in all its Circumstances as You Petition for whil'st an Enemy is in the Kingdom and can make a Return of near an Hundred Voices The Lords Petition with the King's Answer may be printed Novemb. 29. 1688. The P. O.'s Letter to the English Army Gentlemen and Friends WE have given you so full and so true an Account of Our Intentions in this Expedition in Our Declaration that as We can add nothing to it so We are sure you can desire nothing more of us We are come to preserve your Religion and to restore and establish your Liberties and Properties and therefore We cannot suffer Our selves to doubt but that all true English men will come and concur with Us in Our desire to secure these Nations from POPERY and SLAVERY You must all plainly see that you are only made use of as Instruments to enslave the Nation and ruin the Protestant Religion and when that is done you may judge what ye your selves ought to expect both from the cashiering of all the Protestant and English Officers and Soldiers in Ireland and by the Irish Soldiers being brought over to be put in your places
So that Conquest may make Way for a Government but it cannot constitute it Secondly There is a Supreme Power in every Community essential to it and inseparable from it by which if it be not limited immediately by God it can form it self into any kind of Government And in some extraordinary Occasions when the Safety and Peace of the Publick necessarily require it can supply the Defects reform the Abuses and re-establish the true Fundamentals of the Government by Purging Refining and bringing Things back to their first Original Which Power may be called The Supreme Power Real Thirdly When the Community has made choice of some Form of Government and subjected themselves to it having invested some Person or Persons with the Supreme Power The Power in those Persons may be called The Supream Power Personal Fourthly If this Form be a mix'd Government of Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy and for the easie Execution of the Laws the Executive Power be lodg'd in a single Person He has a Supream Power Personal quoad hoc Fifthly The Supreme Power Personal of England is in Kings Lords and Commons and so it was in Effect agreed to by King Charles the First in his Answer to the nineteen Popositions and resolved by the Convention of the Lords and Commons in the year 1660. And note That the Acts of that Convention tho' never confirmed by Parliament have been taken for Law and particularly by the Lord Chief Justice Hales Sixthly The Supreme Power Personal of England fails three Ways 1. 'T is dissolved For two Essential Parts fail 1. a King 2. a House of Commons which cannot be called according to Constitution the King being gone and the Freedom of Election being destroyed by the Kings Incroachments 2. The King has forfeited his Power several Ways Subjection to the Bishop of Rome is the Subjection against which our Laws cry loudest And even Barclay that Monarchical Politician acknowledges That if a King alienate his Kingdom or subject it to another he forfeits it And Grotius asserts That if a King really attempt to deliver up or subject his Kingdom he may be therein resisted And that if the King have part of the Supreme Power and the People or Senate the other part the King invading that part which is not his a just Force may be opposed and he may lose his Part of the Empire Grotius de Bello c. Cap. 72. But that the King has subjected the Kingdom to the Pope needs no Proof That he has usurp'd an absolute Power superieur to all Laws made the Peoples Share in the Legislative Power impertinent and useless and thereby invaded their just Rights none can deny 'T were in vain to multiply Instances of his Forfeitures And if we consider the Power exercis'd by him of late it will most evidently appear to all who understand the English Constitution that it admits of no such King nor any such Power 3. The King has deserted 1. By incapacitating himself by a Religion inconsistent with the Fundamentals of our Government 2. By forsaking the Power the Constitution allow'd him and usurping a Foreign one So that tho the Person remained the King was gone long ago 3. By Personal Withdrawing Seventhly The Supreme Power Real remains in the Community and they may act by their Original Power And tho every Particular Person is notwithstanding such Dissolution Forfeiture or Desertion subject to the Laws which were made by the Supreme Power Personal when in Being yet the Communities Power is not bound by them but is paramount all Laws made by the Supreme Power Personal And has a full Right to take such Measures for Settling the Government as they shall think most sure and effectual for the lasting Security and Peace of the Nation For we must note that it was the Community of England which first gave Being to both King and Parliament and to all the other Parts of our Constitution Eighthly The most Renowned Politician observes That those Kingdoms and Republicks subsist longest that are often renewed or brought back to their first Beginnings which is an Observation of Self-evident Truth and implies That the Supreme Power Real has a Right to renew or bring back And the most-ingenious Lawson observes in his Politica That the Community of England in the late Times had the greatest Advantage that they or their Ancestors had had for many Ages for this purpose tho God hid it from their Eyes But the wonderful Concurrence of such a series of Providences as we now see and admire gives ground to hope That the Veil is removed and the Nation will now see the Things that concern their Peace Ninthly The Acts done and executed by the Supreme Power Personal when in Being have so modell'd the Parts and Persons of the Community that the Original Constitution is the best justest and the most desirable The Royal Family affords a Person that both Heaven and Earth point out for King There are Lords whose Nobility is not affected by the Dissolution of the Government and are the subject Matter of a House of Lords And there are Places which by Custom or Charter have Right to choose Representatives of the Commons Tenthly There are inextricable Difficulties in all other Methods For 1. There is no Demise of the King neither Civil nor Natural 2. There is consequently no Descent 3. The Community only has a Right to take Advantage of the King's Forfeiture or Desertion 4. Whatever other Power may be imagin'd in the two Houses as Houses of Parliament it cannot justify it self to the Reason of any who understand the Bottom of our Constitution 5. By this Method all Popish Successors may be excluded and the Government secured in case all the Protestants of the Family die without Issue And this by the very Constitution of England And the Question can never arise about the Force or the Lawfulness of a Bill of Exclusion 6. The Convention will not be oblig'd to take Oaths c. Eleventhly If these things be granted and the Community be at Liberty to act as above it will certainly be most advisable not only for the Security and Welfare of the Nation but if rightly understood for the Interest of their Royal Highnesses to limit the Crown as follows To the Prince of Orange during his Life yet with all possible Honour and Respect to the Princess whose Interests and Inclinations are inseparably the same with his Remainder to the Princess of Orange and the Heirs of her Body Remainder to the Princess of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body Remainder to the Heirs of the Body of the Prince of Orange Remainder as an Act of Parliament shall appoint This will have these Conveniences among others 1. Husband and Wife are but one Person in Law and her Husbands Honour is hers 2. It puts the present Kingly Power into the best Hand in the World which without Flattery is agreed on by all Men. 3. It asserts the above said Power in the
Authorities out of this Realm as also for restoring and uniting to the Imperial Crown of this Realm the antient Jurisdictions Authorities Superiorities and Preheminences to the same of Right belonging and appertaining by reason whereof the Subjects of this Realm were kept in good order and disburthened of divers great and intolerable Charges and Exactions until such time as all the said good Laws and Statutes by one Act of Parliament made in the first and second Years of the Reigns of King Philip and Queen Mary were clearly repealed and made void by reason of which Act of Repeal the Subjects of England were eftsoons brought under an usurped Foreign Power and Authority and yet remained in that Bondage to their intolerable Charges and then Enacts that for the repressing of the said usurped Foreign Power and the restoring of the Rights Jurisdictions and Preheminences appertaining to the Imperial Crown of this Realm The said Act made in the first and second Years of the said late King Philip and Queen Mary except as therein is excepted be repealed void and of none effect The said Act of Primo Elizabethae proceeds First to revive by express words many Statutes that had been made in King Henry the Eighth's time and repealed in Queen Mary's and Secondly to abolish all Foreign Authority in these words viz. And to the intent that all Vsurped and Foreign Power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal may for ever be clearly extinguished and never to be used or obeyed within this Realm c. May it please your Highness that it may be Enacted That no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate Spiritual or Temporal shall at any time after the last day of this Session of Parliament use enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Superiority Authority Preheminence or Priviledg Spiritual or Ecclesiastical within this Realm c. but the same shall be clearly abolished out of this Realm c. Any Statute Custom c. to the contrary notwithstanding Thirdly The said Act restores in the next Paragraph to the Imperial Crown of this Realm such Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities c. Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority had heretofore been or might lawfully be exercised or used c. Fourthly the Act impowers the Queen to assign Commissioners to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction And Fifthly For the better observation and maintenance of this Act imposes upon Ecclesiastical and Temporal Officers and Ministers c. the Oath commonly call'd the Oath of Supremacy which runs thus viz. The Oath of SUPREMACY I A. B. do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience that the Queen's Highness is the only Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other her Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things and Causes as Temporal and that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Foreign Jurisdictions Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and to my Power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminencies and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book It cannot but be obvious to every impartial Peruser of the Statute especially if he have the least knowledg of what Condition the Government of this Nation was reduced to by Papal Encroachments and Usurpations That the Makers of this Law and the Sense of this Oath was no other in general than that the People of this Realm should bear Faith and true Allegiance even in Matters relating to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and not to the Pope or any foreign pretended Jurisdiction What the several Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queen her Heirs and Successors are in particular and what the Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities United and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm are in particular is not material here to be discoursed of though the several Statutes made in King Henry the Eighth's time and King Edward the Sixth's and revived in Queen Elizabeth's will unfold many of them and clear the distinction which the OATH makes betwixt Authorities granted or belonging to the King and Authorities united and annexed to the Imperial Crown and Mr. Prynn's History of the Pope's intolerable Usurpations upon the Liberties of the Kings and Subjects of England and Ireland together with Sir Roger Twisden's Historical Vindication of the Church of England in point of Schism will in a great measure acquaint the Curious how matters stood with us here with respect to Church-Government before the Pope had wrested the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction almost wholly out of the hands of our Kings our Parliaments and Courts of Justice In short those Jurisdictions c. are such as the Antient Laws Customs and Usages of the Realm or latter Acts of Parliament have Created Given Limited and Directed The Makers of this Law did not design to impose upon the People of England any new Terms of Allegiance but to secure the old ones exclusive of any Pretences of the Pope or See of Rome Nor are there any words in this Oath more strong more binding to Duty and Allegiance than are words which the old Oath of Fealty is conceived in which all Men were antiently obliged and may yet be required to take to the King in the Court-Leet at twelve years of Age which runs thus viz. You shall swear that from this day forward you shall be true and faithful to our Soveraign Lord King James and his Heirs And Faith and Truth shall bear of Life and Limb and terrene Honour And you shall not know nor hear of any ill or damage intended to him that you shall not defend So help you Almighty God This is as full and comprehensive as the Oath of Supremacy I do promise that I shall bear faith and true Allegiance to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions c. So that the true sense and meaning of the Oath of Supremacy is this viz. I will be true and faithful to our Soveraign Lord the King his Heirs and lawful Successors and will to my Power assist and defend all his Rights notwithstanding any pretence made by the Pope or any other Foreign Power to exercise Jurisdiction within the Realm all which Foreign Power I utterly renounce in Matters Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal The Oath of Allegiance is appointed by the Act of 3 Jac. 1. Chap. 4. Intituled An Act for discovering and repressing of Popish Recusants It