though to amuse the Nation He allowed them the empty Names of Privy Counselors He had not brought three Kingdoms to the brink of Ruine nor upon Himself so hard a fate Yet I must acknowledge some part of the obligation we have to these Gentlemen that of late had the sole conduct of King JAMES His Affairs For in giving Him such Counsels as his greatest Enemies could have wish'd Him they prov'd the occasion of our being at this day happy under the Auspicious Reign of their Majesties being Princes of the same Religion and Interests with Their People And we may justly say as Themistocles of old we had undoubtedly perish'd if we had not perish'd How little is King James oblig'd to His Secretary that penn'd this Deelaration since he so foolishly rakes up the Remembrance of those things that made Him and His Government odious to the World by the names of Calumnies and Stories which it was so much His Master's Interest to bury in silence Good God! Were the late palpable and barefac'd Incroachments upon the Fundamental Laws of the Nation but Calumnies Were the open Violations of Solemn Oaths Promises and Ingagements but Stories Does King James or His French and Irish Councellors imagine that we have so soon forgot His Promises made in Council not many hours after His Brother's Death and his compicuous Breaches of them not many months thereafter Can we allow our selves to forget that all the Trusts both in Court Bench and the Army were filled up with these very Men whom Reiterated Laws had rendred incapable of them Was a Person 's sitting at the Council board whose very being found in England was death by the Law but a meer Calumny Can a few months be able to obliterate the Memory of that Affair of Megdalen Colledge one of the most open Invasions of Property that could be Have we lost the Remembrance of that Illegal Ecclesiastical Court and the Tyrannick Judgments past therein Have we not seen a Reverend Prelat suspended from his Function meerly because he would not do what he could not that is for not condemning a man unheard Have not we seen seven of the Spiritual Peers of England sent prisoners to the Tower and brought as Criminals to the Bar for barely representing the Reasons why they could not obey an Arbitrary Command contrary to their Conscience Both England and our Neighbouring Nation have too many Reasons to remember the Late King James's assuming to himself an Arbitrary and Despotick Power not only to dispence with Laws and the firmest Constitutions but to act diametrically opposite to them Can King James's Oratory perswade us That the continuing to Levy the Customs and additional Excise which had been only granted during the Late King Charles's Life before the Parliament could meet to renew this Grant was but a Calumny Was the strange Essay of Mahometan Government acted at Taunton and Lyme and the no less strange Proceedings of that Bloody Chief Justice in his Western Circuit justly term'd his Champaign for it was an open Hostility to all Law for which and the like Services he had the reward of the Great Seal were they all but Stories We have too good Reason not to forget the many Violences committed by the Soldiers of a standing Army in most Parts of England and Scotland which are the most severe and insupportable Invasisions of Property These and such like with a great many more were the things that render'd King James's Government Justly Odious to the British world and made these three Kingdoms groan after Liberty If so grave and tragick a Subject could allow it I could be almost tempted to laugh at that Expression in the Declaration of his Enemies not daring to attempt the proving these Charges to the World which is all one as if a Man in the severest fit of the Gout should be desir'd to prove that he is so when the Sense of the Pain proves too sad a remembrancer of his Distemper And indeed this part of King James's Declaration merits no other answer than that of the Philosopher to him who deny'd motion When making a step up and down the Room he vouchsafed him no other Refutation of his Ridiculous Assertion than these two words hiene Motus In fine It will be equally impossible to perswade the World that these Actions that tender'd King James's Government Odious to the world were but Calumnies and Stories as to perswade a Man upon the Rack that he feels no pain How unluckily have the Penners of his Declaration stumbled upon that Expression of his Enemies not caring what Slavery they reduce the Kingdoms to Quis tulerit Gracchâ—s That King James had in a great measure enslav'd these Nations and was upon the Ripening his designs in Conjunction with Lewis the 14th to teach us a French kind of Subjection has appear'd in legible Characters by the whole Scheme of his Actings But since his present Majesties Accession to the Throne there is not the least footstep of Slavery left us we are blest with a King that takes the Advice of his Parliament and owns to distinct Interest from that of his People a Prince who to deliver us from Popery and Slavery has ventur'd his All and who by his Conduct at home and his Allies abroad is capable to render us happy If our own Divisions and Folly do not precipitate us into an inevitable and unpitied Ruin. In the next place King James tells us That since his Arrival in Ireland the Defence of his Protestant Subjects as he calls them their Religion Priviledges and Properties is especially his care with the Recovery of his own Rights And to this end he has preferr'd such of them of whose Loyalty and affection he is satisfied to places both of the highest Honour and Trust about his Person as well as in his Army The Reading of these Lines puts me in mind of the parallel so exactly observ'd betwixt the French King and King James in all their Conduct and particularly in both their way of asserting the calm Methods used by them towards their Protestant Subjects When that Common Enemy of the Christian part of Europe as the present Pope was pleased to call him had outdone all the Nero's and Julian's of old in the Art of Persecution and had render'd himself abominated to the World by the Cruelties committed by his Dragoon Missioners upon those very people that had done him the best Offices and preserved the Crown upon his Head in this Minority yet at the very same time Lewis the 14th and his Ministers have had the Impudence to affirm That no other Methods were us'd to Convert these poor Victims but those of fair Persuasion and Calmness Just so King James that he may follow as near his Copy as possible having since his Arrival in Ireland abandoned the Protestants of that Countrey to the Merciless Rage of an Enemy irreconcilable from both a principle of Religion and Civil Interest who within his view had laid desolate
in his first Speech to his Privy-Council an hour after his Brother's Death printed by his own Command in these Words My Lords before I enter on any other I think fit to say something to you since it has pleased Almighty God to place me in this Station and I 'm now to succeed to so good and gracious a King as well as so very kind a Brother I think fit to declare to you That I will endeavour to follow his Example and most especially in that of his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People I have been reported to be a Man for Arbitrary Power but that is not the only thing that has been said of me And I shal endeavour to preserve this Government both in Church and State as it is now by Law established I know the Principle of the Church of England is for Monarchy and the Members thereof have shown themselves good and loyal Subjects therefore I shall always take care to defend and support it I know the Laws of England are sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as I can wish And as I shal never depart from the just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown so I shal never invade any Man's Property He that can reconcile this Speech with King James his after-Actings is the fittest Person I know to explain the Popish Notion of our Saviour's Body being in a thousand distinct Places at once In these Expressions he takes it very unkindly to have been reported a Man for Arbitrary Power and promises a great many things that are contradictory to it but how well he deserved the Character all his Conduct has made it appear with a Witness We have one of the most remarkable instances of King James's being against Arbitrary Power in this Declaration of the 12th of February 1686 / 7 for a Toleration in Scotland where we find these new coin'd Words thrice made use of Our Absolute Power with this addition Which all our Subjects are to obey without Reserve Now Absolute in its natural Signification importing the being without all ties and restraints then the true meaning of this seems to be That there is an inherent Power in the King which can neither be restrained by Laws Promises nor Oaths for nothing less than being free from all these renders a Power Absolute Though the Term Absolute was enough to stretch our Allegiance yet that which comes after is yet a step of an higher Nature tho' one can hardly imagine what can go beyond Absolute Power and 't is in these Words which all our Subjects are to obey without Reserve This in indeed the carrying Obedience many degrees beyond what the Grand Seignior yet ever claimed for the most despotick Princes in the World before Lewis le Grand's time thought it enough to oblige their Subjects to submit to their Power and to bear whatever they thought fit to impose upon them But till the fatal Days of the Dragoon Conversions it was never so much as pretended that Subjects were bound to obey their Princes without Reserve and to be of his Religion because he would have it so the only convincing Argument used by these booted Apostles of late So without doubt this Qualification of the Duty of Subjects was industriously put in here by King James his Jesuitick Counsels to prepare the Protestants of Scotland for a terrible Le Roy le vent since the poor Pretensions of the Conscience Honour Religion and Reason would have been reckoned as Reserves upon their Obedience which were all by the Expressions shut out Before I leave this Paramount Instance of King James's assuming to himself an Arbitrary Power beyond what the Great Turk claims and contrary to his own reiterated promises I must take notice of another very comprehensive expression in that same Declaration for a Toleration in Scotland and it 's this ' We think fit to declare That we will not suffer Violence to be offered to any Man's Conscience nor will we use force or INVINCIBLE NECESSITY upon any Man on the account of his Perswasion nor the Protestant Religion ' When I first read these Words I easily perceiv'd what caution was used in the choice of them for it is clear the general Words of Violence and Force are to be explained and determined by these last of INVINCIBLE NECESSITY So that King James very wisely promised only to lay no invincible Necessity on his Subjects but for all Necessities that were not Invincible they might expect to have felt a large share of them For Disgraces want of Imployment Finings Imprisonments and even Death it self are all Vincible things to a Man of a firmness of Mind yea the Violence of Torture the Furies of Dragoons and the Precedents used of late in France might have been fairly included within this Promise since a great and sublime Soul fortified with an extraordinary measure of Grace might be able to support under them Now since we have had so many experiences of King James's faithfulness to his Promises before he abandoned the Government I pray what Arguments has he of late given us that he will be more observing of his Word than hitherto he has been Sure the reducing Hereticks to the See of Rome is no less Meritorious than before nor King James by breathing a little of the French Air and concerting Measures with Lewis the Fourteenth become less Bigot King James concludes his Declaration with assuring all his pretended Subjects That if within twenty days after his appearing in person within England they return to their Obedience by deserting his Enemies and joining with him he will grant them his full pardon and all past miscarriages shall be forgot This merits no other Answer but what has been already said Only this he must have the worst Opinion of the frailty of Humane Nature that can be brought to believe That any Man not altogether divested of his Reason can be prevailed with to join King James though he were in England except he be of that Religion that obliges him to assist a Prince that sets up so fairly for the Glorious Title of the Extirpator of Heresie and to venture all upon the uncertainty of seeing their Church Triumphant And if there be any of the Protestant Perswasion so strangely infatuated as but to wish his Return I shall entertain them with no other Answer but the recommending to them that place of Holy Writ Preached upon before the House of Commons of late by an eminent Divine Ezra 9. ch v. 13.14 ' And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seing that thou our God hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve and haft given us such a Deliverance as this Should we again break thy Commandments and joyn in affinity with the People of these abominations would'st not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping Printed at London and Re-Printed at Edinburgh 1689.
something surprized to hear King James his Secretaries put out their Masters secret Designs that were so much his Interest to conceal but the Truth is we knew them before to our Cost and we hope are on the way to be sufficiently secured against any further Effects of them In the end of this Paragraph we are told That several Protestants are now returned to their Country and Habitations and that more would follow if the Ports were open But the Usurpers as he pleases to call their present Majesties know too well the Sincerity of his intentions to permit so free Passage for them This indeed is all of a piece with the rest We are Witnesses every Day of hundreds of poor Protestants of that Country grasping every Opportunity they can at any rate purchase to abandon their Homes and all that 's dear to them that they may but escape with their Lives And I defie any of King James his Friends to instance me one single Person of any Condition that have dared to return Home since his Arrival in Ireland none of them being so far in love with Destruction as to venture on his Protection In this Epithet King James is pleased to bestow on their Majesties he imitates his Patron Louis le Grand who I confess has the greatest Reason of Hatred against his Majesty as being the great Supporter of the Liberty of Europe and who in conjunction with his Allies is best able to bring to Reason that insupportable Enemy of Christendom yea of Mankind it self It were an impertinent piece of Boldness or rather unpardonable Impudence to offer to vindicate their Majesties from that injurious Designation since the Wisdom and Power of the Parliament is paramount to all private assertions of their Majesties just Right And that the most if not all the Crowned Heads and Soveraign Princes and States of Europe not only rank our present King among the best and greatest Kings of England but promise to themselves from his Assistance to bridle Louis le Grand within his proper Boundaries It was ever looked upon as a Principle of common Law That an Heir in Remainder has just Cause to sue him that is in Possession if he makes Wastes on the Inheritance that belongs to him in Reversion That the Heir of a Crown should interpose when he sees him that is in Possession hurried on by bad Counsels to subject an independent Kingdom to a Foreign Jurisdiction is much more reasonable since the thing is of much more Importance and that this was King James his Case is apparent by the Transactions of the Earl of Castlemain at the Court of Rome and the rather that by a great many Statutes it was Treason to have Correspondence with that See This inclined to the setting up of a pretended Heir in such a manner as the whole Kingdom believed him supposititious was a just and lawful Ground for one Sovereign Prince such as his Majesty was when Prince of Orange to make War against another that had so abused his Power and 't is an unquestionable Maxim among Lawyers That the Success of a just War gives a lawful Title to that which is acquired in the Progress of it Therefore King James having so far sunk in the War that he both abandoned his People and deserted the Government all his Right and Title to the Crown did thereupon accrue to his present Majesty in the Right of Conquest So that he might have lawfully then assumed the Crown But his present Majesty chose rather to leave the matter to the determination of the Peers and Representatives of the People assembled with all Freedom in the Convention who did thereupon declare him King so that tho' he was vested with a just Title of Conquest he chose rather to receive the Crown by their Declaration than to hold it in the Right of his sword This I thought fit to say not so much for Confutation of the injury done their Majesties in the above-mentioned Designation which needs not my Pen but to state their Right to the Crown in such a Light as may remove needless scruples of swearing Allegiance to them In the beginning of the third and last Paragraph King James tell us That nothing but his own Inclinations to justice could prevail with him to such a Proceeding as that of his care of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland and hopes his Protestant Subjects in England as he calls them will make a Judgment of what they may expect from him Indeed it is no difficult Matter to make a Judgment of what we may justly expect from him if ever Divine Judgement as the Reward of our Ingratitude for so great a Deliverance should permit us to fall again under the heavy Yoke of a Popish Prince whom we have so justly and happily thrown off King James is of a Religion that has in a famous Council decreed That no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks much less with Subjects that he looks upon as so many Rebels and will not miss to treat them as such when ever they give him the Opportunity of doing it For his greatest Admirers do not run to that height of Idolatry to imagine him so much Angel as not to take all Methods to revenge such an Affront and secure himself at our Cost from such Treatment for the future The Apprehensions of which Resentment would strike such Terror in Men's Minds that nothing would be capable to divert them from offering up All for an Atonement and Popery and Slavery will be thought a good Bargain if they can but save their Lives Then we might lament our Miseries when it should be out of our Power to help them for a Prince of Orange is not always ready to rescue us with so vast expence and hazard of his Person And I must say if ever our Madness should hurry us thus far we should become rather the Objects of Laughter than of Pity Therefore King James promises and declares That nothing shall ever alter his Resolutions to pursue such and no other methods as by his said Subjects in Parliament shall be found proper for their common Security peace and happiness Such filly bates as these will not now take and here is a great deal of Pains lost to perswade us to rely upon Promises so often made already and as often broken What Adjournments Prorogations and Dissolutions of Parliament we have had of late is not easie to be forgotten We have found to our sad Experience that the Interest of the Court and that of the People were two incompatible things and to endeavour a Redress of the least Grievance in a Parliamentary way was not only a vain Attempt but a design branded with the infamous Name of Dissatisfaction to the Government I need not be at the pains to repeat all the Promises made by King James of the same Nature with this in his Declaration and how well they were observed we all know Yet I cannot but take notice of one made