Exercise of his Absolute Power against all deadly Nor is it difficult to assign the reason of the Deformity that appears in his Majesty's present Actings towards his Dissenting Protestant Subjects in those two Kingdoms For should there be no Restriction upon the Toleration in Scotland to hinder the greatest part of the Presbyterians from taking the Advantage of it the Bishops and Conforming Clergy would be immediately forsaken by the generality if not all the People and so an issue would not only be put to the Division among Protestants in that Kingdom but they would become an united and thereupon a formidable Body against Popery which it is not for the Interest of the Roman Catholicks to suffer or give way unto Whereas the more unbounded the Liberty is that is granted to Dissenters in England the more are our Divisions not only kept up but increased and promoted especially through this Freedom's arriving with them in an illegal way without both the Authority of the Legislative Power and the Approbation of a great part of the People it being infallibly certain that there is a vast number of all Ranks and Conditions who do prefer the abiding in the Communion of the Church of England before the joyning in Fellowship with those of the Separate and Dissenting Societies Upon the whole this different Method of proceeding towards Dissenting Protestants in Matters mere Religious shews that all this Indulgence and Toleration is a Trick to serve a present juncture of Affairs and to advance a Popish and Arbitrary Design and that the Dissenters have no Security for the continuance of their Liberty but that when the Court and Jesuitick end is compassed and obtained there is another course to be steered towards them and instead of their hearing any longer of Liberty and Toleration they are to be told that it is the Interest of the Government and the Safety and Honor of his Majesty to have but one Religion in his Dominions and that all must be Members of the Catholick Church and this because the King will have it so which is the Argument that hath been made use of in the making so many Converts in France They who now suffer themselves to be deluded into a Confidence in the Royal Word will not only come to understand what Mr. Coleman meant in his telling Pere de la Chaise that the Catholicks in England had a great work upon their hand being about the Extirpation of that Heresie which hath borne sway so long in this Northern part of the World but they will also see and feel how much of the Designs of Rome was represented in that passage of the Pope's Nuncio's Letter dated at Brussels Aug. 9. 1674. wherein upon the Confidence which they placed in the Duke of York which is not lessened since he came to the Crown he takes the confidence to write That they hoped speedily to see the total and final Ruin of the Protestant Party And as Protestant Dissenters have no Security by the Declaration and Proclamation for the continuance of their Liberty so they that have by way of Thanksgiving Addressed to the King for those Royal Papers have not only acted very ill in reference both to the Laws and Rights of the Kingdoms and of Religion in general but they have carried very unwisely in relation to their own Interest and the avoiding the Effects of that Resentment which most Men are justly possessed with upon the illegal Emission of these Arbitrary and Prerogative Papers I shall not enter upon any long Discourse concerning this new Practice of Addressing in general it having been done elsewhere some years ago but I shall only briefly intimate that it was never in fashion unless either under a weak and precarious Government or under one that took illegal Courses and pursued a different Interest from that of the People and Community As he who Ruleth according to the standing Laws of a Country over which he is set needs not seek for an Approbation of his Actions from a part of his Subjects the Legality of his Proceedings being the best Justification of him that Governs and giving the truest Satisfaction to them that are Ruled so he who enjoys the love of all his People needs not look for Promises of being assisted stood by and defended by any one Party or Faction among them there being none from whom he can have the least Apprehension of Opposition and Danger It was the want of a legal Title in Oliver Cromwel and his Son Richard to the Government that first begot this Device of Addressing and brought it upon the Stage in these British Nations and it was the Arbitrary Procedures of the late King as it is of his present Majesty and their acting upon a distinct Bottom from that of the Three Kingdoms that hath revived and does continue it Nor is there any thing that hath rendered those two Princes more contemptible abroad and proclaimed them Weaker at home than their recurring unto and solliciting the Flatteries and Aid of the Mercenary Timorous Servile and for low and personal Ends byass'd part of their Subjects and thereby telling the World that neither the Generality nor the most Honorable of their People have been united in their Interest nor Approvers of the Counsels that have been taken and pursued And if any thing did ever cast a Dishonor upon the English Nation it hath been that loathsome Flattery and slavish Sycophancy wherewith the Addressers both now and for some years past have stuffed their Applications to the two Royal Brothers The Throne that is sustained and upheld by the Pillars of Law and Justice needs not to hew out unto its self other Supporters nor lean upon the crooked and weak Stilts of the insignificant and for the most part deceitful as well as brib'd Vows of a sort of Men who will be as ready upon the least disgust to cry Crucifie to morrow as they were for being gratified may be in their Lusts Humors and Revenges and at the best in some separate Concern to cry Hosanna to day I shall decline prosecuting what concerns the Honor or Dishonor of him to whom the Addresses are made or how Politick or Impolitick the Countenancing and Encouraging them is and shall apply my self to this new Sett of Addressers and endeavor to shew how Foolish as well as Criminally they have acted Nor is it an Argument either of their Prudence or Honesty or of their acting with any Consistency to themselves that having so severely inveighed against the Addresses that were in fashion a few years ago and having fastened all the Imputations and Reproaches upon those that were Accessary to them which that Rank of Addressers could be supposed to have deserved they now espouse the Practice which they had condemned and in reference to as Arbitrary and unjustifiable an Act of His present Majesty as the most illegal one the late King was guilty of or the worst Exercise or Prerogative for which any heretofore either
have applied himself to any other Employment rather than have betaken himself to writing being a thing which Nature never intended him for and especially upon a Subject so far above the reach of his understanding and against a discourse of that solid and well-digested strength that even the Reverend Fathers whose Letter-carrier he used to be if we be not strangely mistaken in the Gentleman had so much wit as not to attack it As knowing that notwithstanding all their Art in Sophistry they must have come off baffled and that their false colours would have been easily detected by the beams of that light which dart themselves forth in all the parts of that excellent Paper And I dare farther say that as Mr. Stewart will never much value himself upon the being esteemed by one either of this Gentleman 's Religious Principles or of his intellectual Accomplishments so I can never think that he can be so much degenerated from what he formerly was as to obtain the approbation of his mind to return any considerable degree of honour to a person who upon all accounts does so little merit it unless it be that he may possibly challenge it by vertue of an undeserved Title and of a Character that he is exceeding ill qualified for However seeing Fools will be medling tho' they are sure to come by the worst I shall reduce all I have to say in Castigation of this vain and presumptuous man to the seven following heads 1. His Falsifications in reference to several parts of Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter 2. His Injustice to Their Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Orange and the hidden spleen he every where ventureth to express against them 3. His slanderous Calumnies against the States of these Provinces and how he studies to excite their Roman Catholick Subjects to disturb the Peace and Tranquillity of this Country 4 His Shameless Impudence in endeavouring to impose upon the World as if the Protestant Dissenters in England were concluded by Their Highnesses to stand hereafter involved in the same rank and condition with the Papists 4. His Publishing the Villany of the Romish Church and proclaiming the Injustice and Dishonour of the most Eminent Papal Monarchs while he pretends to commend and justifie the proceeding of his Majesty of Great Brittain 6. His egregious Ignorance in relation to Government Laws Customs and matters of Fact Lastly The signal Ingratitude of the Papists towards Their Royal Highnesses for all that Grace Favour and Ease which they were willing to have allowed unto them As to the first 'T is known to be a received Principle among the Casuists of the Society that it is at most but a venial sin to detract from misrepresent and calumniate those whom they either take to be their Enemies or do conceive to have done them any ways a prejudice And tho' the Opinion authorising such a practice be condemned by a Bull of the present Pope bearing date Anno 1679 yet our Author is more a Vassal to the Ignatian Order than upon the Authority of one whom the Jesuites do so little value to forbear putting a Doctrine into exercise which he hath been so well instructed in by these Reverend Fathers and especially when he finds it so conduceable to his design and interest What can be remoter from Truth as well as Ingenuity than to charge Monsieur Fagel with confining the name of Protestants in England only to those of the Conformable Communion and with excluding the Dissenters from the glorious priviledge of that appellation For tho' it be true that thro' the hatred and violence of the late King and his present Majesty to the Fanaticks and by vertue of their Commands to a Company of Mercenary timorous and servile Justiciaries and Officers it hath some time come to pass that the Laws which were originally enacted and only intended against Papists have been executed upon Dissenters yet all men know that to have been a perversion of Justice seeing in all the Statutes to the Penalties whereof they were made obnoxious they are still considered and acknowledged for Protestants and made liable to sufferings by no other Title than that of persons differing from the Church of England in matter of Discipline and about Forms and Rites of External Worship Nor is there one word in Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter whereby they are precluded from that stile or any ways represented as unworthy of it While they stand obnoxious to several Laws in which the Members of the Church of England have no concernment nor are in any danger from it was impossible to avoid the giving them a name by which they might be distinguished from those of the Legal and National Communion And so tender hath the Pensionary been of charactering them by any offensive or harsh denomination that he hath not so much as once in his whole Letter called them Fanaticks tho' it be an appellation that hath been vulgarly affixed to them but he hath chosen always to denominate them by the name of Dissenters which is not only the softest Term they can be described by but that which themselves have elected as the stile by which they are willing to be discriminated from their fellow Protestants with whom they differ in some few and little particulars And many of them being people whose Principles are coincident and agreeable with theirs of the Legal Establishment in Holland in whose Fellowship Monsieur Fagel is known to be it could not have entred into the thoughts of any save one of our Authors Intellectuals and Integrity either to charge upon him or so much as to imagine that he should be so injurious to himself and to the Dutch Churches as to preclude those from the list of Protestants But whether this calumnious charge and falsification be the fruit of an Irish Understanding or of Papal Sincerity or the effect of both I shall leave others to judge who may possibly know this Author better than I pretend to do Only this I shall add that he proceeds with the same wit and honesty as he hath begun For from Their Highnesses declaring that they cannot agree to the Repeal of the Tests and Monsieur Fagel's thereupon saying that these Laws inflict not any mulct or penalty upon the Roman Catholicks but that they are only means of securing the Reformed Religion thro' containing provisions by which men are to be accounted qualified for Members of Parliament and to bear publick Offices our Author does by a strange kind of falsification and calumny fasten upon him his having affirmed That the Non-conformists are to be accounted dangerous Enemies of the State and not to be admitted into any Publick Employments He must either be of a very unusual and perverse frame of mind or extreamly ignorant of the nature of those Laws and the Terms wherein they are enacted otherways it is impossible he should imagine how the Dissenters are capable of receiving prejudice by them Seeing all required by those Laws toward the qualifying
Penal Laws against Papists yet to do it in their present Circumstances and at such a conjuncture as this were the highest act of folly in the world and a betraying both their own safety and that of their Religion Had the Roman Catholicks forbore to assume a liberty till it had been legally given them they had been the more capable objects of such a Grace but to bestow it upon them after they have in contempt and defiance of all our Laws taken it 't were to justify their usurpation and approve their crime Could they have been contented with the private practice of their Worship and the non-exaction of the penalties to which our Statutes make them liable without leaping into all Offices of Trust and Command and invading our Seats of Judicature our Churches and our Universities their modesty might have wrought much upon the generosity and candor of all sort of Protestants but their audacious wresting all power into their hands and their laying aside all those that have either any zeal for our Civil Rights or for the Protestant Religion is enough to kindle our further indignation in stead of influencing us to thoughts of moderation and lenity And should we once begin to cancel our Laws according to the measure and proportion that they break them and usurp upon them no man can tell where that will terminate and they will be sure to turn it into an encouragement to further attempts For having in compliance with their Impudence and to absolve them from the guilt of their Crimes and Treasons abrogated the Laws against Popery they will not fail in a little while to betake themselves to the same Methods for obtaining the abolition of all the Laws for Protestancy 'T is but for the King to declare that he will have all his Subjects to be of his own Religion and then by the Logick of the late Cant which he used in his Speech to the Council at Windsor That they who are not for him are against him we must immediately either turn Papists or be put into the same List with them and be thought worthy of the same Royal Displeasure which they are become obnoxious unto who cannot find it to be their duty and interest to destroy the Tests And Mr. Pen's Argument of being afraid of His Majesties and the Papists power and yet to provoke it Good Advice p. 43. will hold in the one case as well as in the other Nor do I see but that the Court may improve another Topick of his against us Ibid. p. 44. viz. That we were ill Courtiers by setting him up first to give him Roast-meat and then to beat him with the Spit by refusing to be of his Religion To which I may add that the brutal severities exercised towards Protestants in France and Piedmont are but ill inducements to prevail upon a Reformed Nation to give Liberty to Papists 'T is an Axiom founded in the light of Nature as well as an Oracle of Revelation That with what measure any do mete unto others it shall be measured to them again and that whatsoever any would that we should do to them they should do so to us Would the Papists once perswade Catholick Rulers to give Indulgence to those of our Religion it would be an argument that they acted sincerely in their pleading against Penal Laws for matters of Religion and would mightily prevail upon all of the Reformed Communion to Repeal such Statutes as are Enacted against them But while they continue and increase their Persecution against us in all places where they have power I do not see how they can reasonably expect that we should believe them either to be just or honest or to deserve any measure of lenity Reprizals are the onely methods whereby to bring them to peaceable and equal Terms Had Protestant Princes and States given Papal Soveraigns to understand that they would act upon the same square that they do and retaliate upon those of the Romish Faith whatsoever should be inflicted because of Religion upon those of ours I have ground to think that the Clergy in France and Savoy would have had more discretion than to have been Instrumental in stirring up the late Persecutions and of instigating Rulers to such unparallelled Barbarities 'T is not many years since a Prince in Germany begun to treat Protestants with an unjust severity and to Banish them his Countrey contrary to his word and the Stipulation he had made with them but upon the Duke of Brandenburg's both threatning and beginning to do so by the Roman Catholicks in his Dutchy of Cleve the other Prince immediately forbare his rigour and the Protestants had fair Quarter allowed them And therefore if Mr. Pen and his Catholick Friends in stead of reproaching the Church of England of justifying by her principle the King of France and the Inquisition would prevail for abolishing the one and for putting an end to Persecution by the other they would thereby do more for inclining the Nations to Tolerate Papists than either by all their invidious Satyrs against the conformable Clergy or by their Panegyricks upon a Popish Monarch and the Romish Church In the mean time 't is most unreasonable for them to demand or expect and unwise as well as unseasonable for British Protestants to consent to the Abrogation of the Tests and the Repealing of the Penal Laws against Papists Moreover though 't is possible that we might defend our selves against the dangers that might ensue upon it had we a Prince of our own Religion on the Throne yet it would be to surrender our selves unto their power and to expose our selves to their Discretion should we venture to do it while a Papist of His Majesties humour hath the weilding of the Scepter One of the main Arguments by which Mr. Pen would perswade us against all apprehension of danger from the Papists in case the Test and Penal Laws were abolished is the inconsiderableness of their number in comparison of Protestants Good Advice p. 49. And yet if there be so many ill Men in the Nation as he intimates Letter 3d. p. 12. who being of no Religion are ready upon the motives of worldly Interest to take upon them the profession of any were it not for fear of being at one time or another called to an account I do not see but that as the Papists through having the King on their side are already possessed of what he stiles the Artificial Strength of the Kingdom why they may not in a short while were those Laws once destroyed by which the Atheistical and profane sort of Men are kept in awe come to obtain too much of the natural strength of it and raise their number to a nearer equality to that of Protestants And though they should never multiply to any near proportion yet we may easily imagine what a few hands may be able to do when Authorized by a Popish Soveraign and seconded by a well-disciplin'd Army commanded by Roman Catholicks
maintain them For as no Papist is prejudiced by them in his person or property so they are the most innocent and moderate security we can have for the preservation of our selves and of our Religion Nor could any thing justifie the Wisdom of the Nation in being without them so long but that we were not till then suspicious of the Religion of the Regnant Prince nor apprehensive before of the misfortune of having a Popish Successor And whereas Mr. Pen tells us that it were ridiculous to talk of giving liberty of Conscience and at the same time imagine that the Tests ought to be continued Good Adv. p. 59. We may not onely reply that Liberty of Conscience has no Relation to Mens being admitted unto Civil Trusts but that the same is practised in several States and Governments both Popish and Protestant and in Pensilvania it self where I suppose Liberty of Conscience is allowed For as we find freedom vouchsafed to Men in matters of Religion both in Holland and in diverse Protestant States in Germany without their being capable of Claiming a share in the Magistracy so though the Protestant Religion be tolerated in Collen yet it is with a preclusion of all of that Religion from Authority Whatsoever else Mr. Pen says upon this head is so despicably weak that as I neither judge it worthy to be taken notice of nor have Room to do it so I am confident that be his Religion what it will which by reason of his late Papers I have more Reason to suspect than ever he writes as much against his conscience and Judgment as against the Pattern and Example which he hath set us in Pensilvania I confess the Dissenters are under more temptations than other Protestants to wish for and to endeavour the Abrogation of the Penal Laws And as this makes them to be the more particularly applied unto by the Court for the promoting of it so it renders them the more liable to be influenced by Discourses of the nature and complexion that Mr. Pen's are of But I hope they will consider that the preservation of the Protestant Religion to themselves their posterity and the Kingdom is more valuable than a little temporal ease and which they onely hold by the precarious tenure of the King's word Surely they cannot be so infatuated as to think that the Papists love them or that they will trust them any longer than they have occasion to use them I would think that it should both make them blush to find themselves coupled with Roman Catholicks in Courts and Employments while their fellow Protestants are shut out and make them jealous that they are onely made use of for some mischievous and sinistrous end They can never hope to lay such a merit upon the Court as the Church of England hath done and her reward may forewarn them what they are to expect when they have done the job that is allotted for them His Majesties sincerity in giving liberty to Dissenting Protestants may be easily guessed at by his ordering 26 poor Scots Dissenters to be sent to the Barbadoes for slaves and this both since the Emitting of his First Proclamation for a Toleration and without the having any thing objected to them but what concerned their Consciences in matters of Religion The Terms upon which Phanaticks are to enjoy his Majesties favour and how long they are to expect the continuance of that mighty Grace we have declared by himself as they stand recorded in my Lord Melfort's Letter to the Presbyterian Ministers in Scotland Namely That he intends to continue their Liberty if he have suitable encouragement and concurrence from them in their Doctrine and Practice and if they concur with him in removing of the Penal Laws This is the Task that they are indulged and preferred for and 't is a wonder that they do not foresee that their destiny will be one and the same in case they have once done it as if they do it not This is the Fountain of all his Majesties friendship to them and the glorious assertion of its having been always his Principle that Conscience ought not to be constrained and that none ought to be persecuted for meer matters of Religion is at last dwindled into this that he will give them Liberty so long as they will concurr and cooperate with him in his introducing of Popery and till they have destroyed the Laws by which our own Religion is fenced about and defended Certainly it is high time to consider what this is which is exacted of them and what hazard they not onely expose the Nation and the Gospel unto but what guilt they derive upon themselves if they undertake and pursue it Nor can they promote the Repealing of the Penal Laws against Papists and the Test Statutes without running themselves under the guilt of Perjury and the making themselves chargeable before God with all the blood that was shed in the War between King Charles I. and the Parliament For as one of the Articles of the Solemn League and Covenant was to endeavour to extirpate Popery so the countenance and incouragement which that Prince gave to Papists was a main ingredient in the State of the Quarrel for which they drew their Swords against him and in the assertion whereof so many thousands lost their lives Can they now be willing to act in direct opposition to that Covenant which rather than renounce and disclaim the obligatory force of many of them have suffered so much or would they have the guilt of all the blood lye upon them which was shed in the former long and fatal War I 'm perswaded that many who are most forward to pursue the Abrogation of the Tests and Penal Laws against Papists never gave themselves leave to think what they are hurried unto Mr. Pen tells them he will beg them for Fools if they do it not Good Advice p. 54. and I dare take upon me to say that they are most Execrable Knaves and Villains if they do it Is it possible they should be so deprived of all understanding as not to perceive themselves meerly trick't upon and made use of for Tools to promote a Design which others have the wisdom and integrity not to be instrumental in when Jeffreys who a while ago said on the Bench Shew me a Fanatick and I will shew you a Knave and that 't was impossible to be a Fanatick and not to be a Rebel should now caress them as his Majesties best and most Loyal Subjects and tell them upon their being advanced to Offices That he is glad to find honest men come to be employed which was the Complement he lately bestowed upon Sir John Shorter 'T is likely they may be told that if they will fall in with the Papists for destroying the Church of England that they shall be secured from the Resentments of the next Heir by having the Monarchy made dissolvable into a Republick upon his Majesties death And this would seem to be
Establishment yet all other Protestants may very rationally promise themselves an Indulgence and that not only from the Mildness and compassionate Sweetness of her Temper but from the Influence which the Prince her Husband will have upon her who as he is descended from Ancestors whose Glory it was to be the Redeemers of their Country from Papal Persecution and Spanish Tyranny so his Education Generosity Wisdom and many Heroick Vertues dispose him to embrace all Protestants with an equal Tenderness and to erect his Interest upon the being Head and Patron of all that profess the Reformed Religion Had the late Duke of Monmouth been victorious against the Forces of the present King and inabled to have wrested the Scepter out of his Hand though all Protestants might thereupon have expected and would certainly have enjoyed an equal freedom without the liableness of any party to Penal Laws for matters of Religion yet he would have been careful and I have reason to believe that it was his purpose to have had the Church of Eng. preserved and maintained and that she should have suffered no alteration but what would have been to her Strength and Glory through an enlargement of the Terms of her Communion and what would have been to the Praise of her Moderation and Charity through her being perswaded to bear with such as differ from her in little things and could not prevail with themselves to partake with her in all Ordinances Upon the whole it is both the prudence and safety of Dissenters as they would escape Extirpation themselves and have Religion conveyed down to Posterity to unite their Strength and Endeavours to those of the Church of England for the upholding her against the assaults of Popish Enemies who pursue her Subversion As matters have been circumstanced and stated in England there hath not been an Affront or Injury offered or done unto her by the Court which did not at the same time reach and wound the Dissenters 'T is not her being for Episcopacy Ceremonies and imposed Set-Forms of Worship the things about which she and the Nonconformists differ that she hath been not long since maligned and struck at by the Man in Power and his Popish functo but it is for being Protestant Reformed and Orthodox Crimes under the Guilt whereof Dissenters were equally concerned and involved Being therefore in opposition to the common Cause of Religion that the late Court of Inquisition was erected over her Ecclesiasticks all Protestants jointly resented the Wrongs which she sustain'd and not only to sympathize with those dignified and lower Clergy which were called to suffer but to espouse her Quarrel with the same warmth that we would our own And as we are to look upon those of the Episcopal Communion to be the great Bulwark of the Protestant Religion and Reformed Interest in England so it was farther incumbent on Dissenters towards them and a Duty which they owe to God the Nation and themselves not to be accessary to any thing through which the legal Establishment of the Church of England might have been by an Act of pretended Regal Prerogative weakned and supplanted I never counsel the Dissenters to renounce their Principles nor to participate with the Prelatical Church in all Ordinances on the Terms to which they have straitned and narrowed their Communion For while they remain unsatisfied of the lawfulness of those Terms and Conditions they cannot do it without offending God and contracting Guilt upon their Souls nor will they of the Church of England in Charity Justice and Honesty expect it from them For whatsoever any Man believeth to be Sin it is so to him and will by God be imputed as such till he be otherwise enlightned and convinced nor are the Dissenters to be false and cruel to themselves in order to be kind and friendly to them But that which I would advise them unto is that after the maintaining the highest measure of Love to the conformable Congregations as Churches of Christ and the esteeming their Members as Christian Protestant Brethren notwithstanding the several things wherein they judge them to err and to be mistaken that they would not by any Act and Transactions of theirs betray them into a Despotical Power not directly nor indirectly acknowledge any Authority paramount unto and superseding the Laws by which the Church of England is established in its present Form Order and Mode of Jurisdiction Discipline and External Worship Whatsoever Ease arrived to the Dissenters through the Kings suspending the Execution of the Penal Laws without their Address and Application they might receive it with Joy and Humility in themselves and with thankfulness to God nor was there hereby any prejudice offered on their part to the Authority of the Law or Offence or Injury given or done to the conformable Clergy Nor is it without grief and regret that the Church-men have been forced to behold the harassing spoiling and imprisonment of the Nonconformists while in the mean time the Papists were suffered to assemble to the Celebration of their Idolatrous Worship without Censure and Controul And had it been in their power to remedy it and give Relief to their Protestant Brethren they would with delight and readiness have embrac'd the occasion and opportunity of doing it But alas instead of having an advantage put into their hand of contributing to the Relief of the Dissenters which I dare say many of them ardently wish and desire they were compelled contrary to their Inclination as well as their Interest to become instrumental in persecuting and oppressing them Nor does the late King covet a better and a more legal advantage against the Conformists than that they would refuse to pursue Dissenters and decline molesting them with Ecclesiastical Censures and civil Punishments So that their condition was to be pityed and bewailed in that they were hindered from acting against the Papists though both enjoyed by Law and influenced thereunto by Motives of self-Preservation as well as by tyes of Conscience while in the mean time they were forced to prosecute their fellow-Protestants or else to be suspended and deposed and put out of their Offices and Employments And tho I believe that they would at last have more Peace in themselves and be better accepted with God in the great Duty of their Account should they have refused to disturb and prosecute their Protestant Brethren and scorn to be any longer Court-Tools for weakning and undermining the Reformed Cause and Interest yet I could not but leave them to act in this as they should be perswaded in themselves and as they judged most agreeable to Principles of Wisdom and Conscience In the interim the Dissenters have all the Reason in the World to believe that the Proceedings of the Clergy and Members of the Church of England against them were not the Results of their Election and Choice but the Effects of moral Compulsion and Necessity Nor will any Dissenter that is prudent and discreet blame them for a matter
full Sails seconded with the favourable Gales of Fortune But in case all these material Objections cannot divert us from engaging in the ill Fortune of the Spaniards let us see on what Terms at least we can assist them usefully If we shall send Troops into the Low Countreys to their Aid 't is in effect to overwhelm them by the very weight and charge of those Succours and sacrifice so many of our own Subjects to Famine and Misery as we do thus send Souldiers unto them because they have neither Countrey enough left to Lodge them in when they come thither nor the means to Entertain them after once they are there If we succour them meerly by Sea that kind of help will not hinder France from taking of their Towns in the mean time one by one and so though we should a little incommodate France we shall not ease Flanders at all and such an Assistance will in Conclusion prove none because 't is an Application of the Plaister too remotely and on the wrong side of the Wound If then the Loss of the Low Countreys be inevitable let us do what we can were it not much better that we should have our share in the Parcels of so great a Shipwrack then to suffer France to ingross them all to themselves since supposing that we do divide Booties with the French on this Occasion the Places which by this means must necessarily fall into our hands will be so many new Bulwarks to England which may shelter us for the future against their vast Designs of which the Partisans of Spain make a Chimerical Monster to intimidate the English from taking part with their best and properest Interest in the Case But when once we are entered into a Communion of Conquests with the French the subduing of Flanders will serve us as Ladders to arrrive at other Projects by wherein we may probably hope to find our Profit and Satisfaction mutually together as well as the Pleasure of a just Revenge I set aside the Conquest of the Indies which we could not fail to encompass whil'st France doth hold all the Forces of Spain in play both at Sea and Land and so occupied that they 'll never be able to retain what they hold in the New World no more than that remainder of Territories which yet they stand possessed of nearer hand Wherefore as to what regards the Interest of this Kingdom what I have last urged methinks might suffice to make you of my Opinion And if we do impartially consider that of the Royal Family What can be more important and convenient for it than to have at their Devotion a Neighbouring Power hard by which is so formidable and that is able to protect them in a few hours from all manner of Revolutions that they may and perhaps not without cause neither apprehend at home by thus commanding both the Treasures and the Armies of France whenever they shall have any need of them to put a Bridle in the mouths of all such as do seek to check their Authority I avow that our properest Interest were to hold the Ballance equal between Spain and France if we could but we should then have thought sooner of that whil'st these matters were in a condition to be disputed For at present the Weight of the Case inclining totally to one side so that we can no longer oppose France with Spain as a Barricado against their Designs we must now think how to become our selves the Counterpoise of France and the Defence of Europe by establishing of our Power beyond Seas on solid Foundations that all other Princes may consider us hereafter as the only People who are capable of resisting the Design of the Universal Monarchy and so as France it self may not be able impunitively to thwart England in this Resolution because then our Safety will be much more firmly setled by our own Strength than with the Force of others and all those who apprehend the Progress of France will conjoyn with us and become tyed to the Fortune of England as they would be at this instant to Spain if they saw that Monarchy in a Condition to be able to maintain them So that all those Reasons do oblige me to conclude that we must no longer hesitate on this point of taking part with France and accept of those Advantagious Offers which the French make unto us both in respect of the publick Good of Christendom as well as our own particular Security since by being united to them in a Knot of such inseparable Conditions and on such a Conjuncture of Affairs because of which they dare refuse us nothing that we ask what need we fear from the opposite Conjunction of any other Parties All the Assistents at this Conference began to express Indignation against this part of his Discourse and shewed by their Unquietness all the while that he spake thus that they had much ado to keep from interrupting of him or to refrain from answering tumultuously before that he had made an end But as they offered to reply in heat all at once to deliver their thoughts on this Subject the Master of the House who had not yet delivered his sense to the Company broke silence and with a little smile which had something in it grave and scornful dexterously intermingled together addressing himself to him who had spoken with so much length just before held on the Debate as follows I know your Prudence my Lord too well says he and your Lordship 's disinteressed Zeal for the good of the State to believe that you can mean seriously what you have urged on the behalf of France but rather am perswaded and that easily too that with an ingenious Artifice you have thus disguised your own true Sentiments of this Case the better to penetrate into the bottom of our ours and so give Opportunity to see clearlier through all the Reasons and the Doubts which may be formed there upon touching this Matter of which we do now treat since the truth of any Argument doth never so well appear and endure the light as when it is sifted to the very root and that the Reflexion thereof is exalted by the Opposition of the contrary sense So that in combating with your Opinion I shall still think that we do not disagree but rather to dissent in the Exposition of a vain Phantasm which you erected for sport sake to divert us and give the Company Recreation Allow me then to tell you that this Project upon which you have thus exercised the accuteness of your Wit with so great a grace is both unprofitable and chimerical no less then shameful and unjust and ruinous towards England to all intents and purposes whatsoever whereas the Design of succouring Spain is facil honourable profitable necessary and suitable to the Fundamental Maxims of our State And if you please to afford me never so little attention it will not be difficult for me to prove unto you very clearly according
Confessor was in private with him and said this Harvy used frequently to come to the Prison after Condemnation and that where one Prisoner died a Protestant many died Papists Mr. Wootten said that after some stay he saw Mr. Harvy come out from Mr. Hubert and then he was admitted to have Speech with him Mr. Cawdry Keeper of Newgate did Inform That Mr. Harvy the Jesuit did frequent the Prison at Newgate about the times of the Execution upon the pretence of the Queens Charity and did spend much time with the Prisoners in private and particularly did so before the last Execution night after night Mr. Cawdry said likewise of the nine that suffered eight died Papists whereof some he knew were Protestants when they came into the Prison It appeared upon several Informations that Mr. Harvy and other Priests did not only resort to Newgate at times of Execution but likewise to the White-Lion in Southwark and other places in the Country and used their endeavours to pervert dying Prisoners Thomas Barnet late a Papist Informed That when he was a Papist and resorted to Gentlemens Houses in Barkshire that were Papists there was almost in every Gentlemans House a Priest and instanced in divers private Gentlemen in that County Others inform the like in Sarrey Mr. Cottman did inform That one Mr. Carpenter late a Preacher at Colledge-hill did in Discourse tell Cottman That the Judgments of God upon this Kingdom by the Plague last year and lately by the Fire in London were come upon this Land and People for their forsaking the true Roman Catholick Religion and shaking off Obedience to the Pope and that if they would return to the Church of Rome the Pope would rebuild the City at his own Charge Carpenter said likewise to Cottman That if he would come and hear him Preach the next Sunday at his House in Queen-street he would give twenty Reasons to prove that the Roman Catholick was the true Religion and his the false and that our Bible had a thousand falsities in it and that there was no true Scripture but at Rome and their Church Carpenter at the Committee confessed that he had formerly taken Orders from the Church of Rome to be a Priest but said he had renounced that Church and taken Orders in England The next thing is the Information of their Insolency and I shall begin with their Scorning and Despising the Bible One Thomas Williams an Officer in Sir William Bowyer 's Regiment Informed That one Ashley a Papist seeing a Woman read in a Bible asked her why she read in that Damnable Presbiterian Bible and said A Play-book was as good Thomas Barnet of Bingfield in Barkshire Informed That being at one Mr. Young's House in Bingfield at Bartholomew-tide last Mr. Young said to the Brother of this Thomas in his hearing That within two Years there should not be a Protestant in England Thomas Barnet Informed further That being at Mr. Doncaster's House in Bingfield one Mr. Thural Son-in-Law to Mr. Doncaster and both Papists said to this Informer who was then likewise a Papist The People take me for a poor fellow but I shall find a thousand or two thousand pounds to raise a party of Horse to make Mr. Hathorns and Mr. Bullocks fat guts lie on the ground for it is no more to kill an Heretick than to kill a Grashopper and that it was happy for him that he was a Catholick for by that means he shall be one that shall be mounted Mr. Linwood Scrivenner in White-Chappel Informed That about the Twentieth of October last meeting with one Mr. Binks a Papist and discoursing with him Binks told him That there was amongst the Papists as a great Design aâ— ever was in England and he thought it would be executed suddenly Being asked how many Papists there were about London He answered About seven thousand and in England an hundred thousand were Armed Mr. Oaks a Physician dwelling in Shadwel Informed That a little after the burning of London one Mr. Carpenter a Minister came to his House in Tower-wharf and spake to him to this purpose I will not say that I am a Papist but this I will say that I had rather die the death of the Papists and that my Soul should be raised with their Resurrection than either to be Presbiterian Independant or Anabaptist and I tell you the Papists have hitherto been his Majesty's best Fortification for when Presbiterians Independants and Anabaptists forsook and opposed him then they stood by him and helped him and he is now resolved to commit himself into their hands And take it upon my word in a short time the Papists will lay you as low as that house pointing to an house that was demolished for they are able to raise Forty thousand men and I believe the next work will be cutting of Throats This was Sworn by Mr. Oaks before Sir John Frederick a Member of the House Mirian Pilkington being present when the Words were spoken doth affirm them all save only those That the King is resolved to commit himself into the Papists hands Those she doth not remember Henry Young a Distiller of Hot-waters informed That about April 1661. being in the Jesuites Colledge in Antwerp one Powel an English Jesuite perswaded him to turn a Roman Catholick and said That if he intended to save his Life and Estate he had best turn so for within seven Years he should see all England of that Religion Young replied That the City of London would never endure it Powel answered That within five or six Years they would break the Power and Strength of London in pieces and that they had been contriving it these twenty Years and that if Young did live he should see it done The said Young did likewise Inform That shortly after his coming into England one Thomson and Copervel both Papists did several times say to him That within five or six Years at the farthest the Roman Catholick Religion should be all over in this Kingdom Jasper Goodwin of Darking in the County of Surrey Informed That about a Month since one Edward Complin a Papist said to him You must all be Papists shortly and that now he was not ashamed to own himself a Roman Catholick and to own his Priest naming two that were in Darkin in the houses of two Papists and likewise said That in twenty four hours warning the Roman Catholicks could raise thirty thousand Men as well armed as any Men in Christendom William Warner of Darking Informed That the said Edward Complin did tell him That the Roman Catholicks in England could in twenty four hours raise thirty thousand Horse and Arms And upon saying so pulled out his Crucifix and Beads and said He was not ashamed of his Religion John Grawnger of Darking Informed that about a Year since being in his House reading the Bible one Thomas Collins a Papist said to him Are you still a Church-goer Had you not better turn Roman Catholick If you stay till you
houses in Holborn at the same time That he was at the Fire in the Temple but was not engaged to do any thing in it And said that Gyfford told him that there were English French and Irish Roman Catholicks enough in London to make a very good Army and that the King of France was coming with 60000 Men under pretence to shew the Dauphin his Dominions but it was to lay his Men at Deep Bulloign Callis and Dunkirk to be in an hours Warning to be Landed in England and he doubted not but it would be by the middle of June and by that time all the Catholicks here will be in readiness all were to rise in order to bring him in That the Papists here were to be distinguished by Marks in their Hatts that the said Father Gyfford doubted not but he should be an Abbot or a Bishop when the work was over for the good service he hath done That at their Meeting Father Gyfford used to tell them it was no more sin to kill a Heretick then a Dog and that they did God good Service in doing what Mischiefs they could by firing their houses That it was well Sir Edmondbury Godfrey was Murdered for he was their Devilish Enemy That Coleman was a Saint in Heaven for what he had done And saith he is fearful he shall be Murthered for this Confession Father Gyfford having sworn him to Secresie and told him he should be Damned if he made any Discovery and should be sure to be killed and that he should take the Oaths because he was a House-keeper and that it was no sin And saith That Gyfford and Roger _____ told him when their Forces meet about the middle of June then have at the VOTES and ADDRESSES Of the Honourable House of Commons ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT Made this present Year 1673 Concerning Popery and other Grievances March 29. 1673. The Parliaments Address to his Majesty for the Removal of Grievances in England and Ireland WE your Majesties most Loyal Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament assembled conceiving our selves bound in necessary Duty to your Majesty and in Discharge of the Trust reposed in us truly to inform your Majesty of the Estate of your Kingdom And though we are abundantly satisfied that it hath been your Royal Will and Pleasure that your Subjects should be governed according to the Laws and Customs of this Realm yet finding that contrary to your Majesties gracious Intention some Grievances and Abuses are crept in We crave Leave humbly to represent them to your Majesties Knowledge and Desire 1. That the Imposition of 12 d. per Chaldron upon Coals for the providing of Convoys by Vertue of an Order from Council dated the 15th of May 1672 may be recalled and all Bonds taken by Virtue thereof cancelled 2. That your Majesties Proclamation of the 24th of December 1672 for preventing of Disorders which may be committed by Soldiers and whereby the Soldiers now in your Majesties Service are in a manner exempted from the ordinary Course of Justice may likewise be recalled 3. And whereas great Complaints have been made out of several parts of this Kingdom of divers Abuses committed in Quartering of Soldiers That your Majesty would be pleased to give Order to redress those Abuses and in particular that no Soldiers be hereafter Quartered in any private Houses and that due Satisfaction may be given to the Inn-keepers or Victuallers where they lye before they remove 4. And since the continuance of Soldiers in this Nation will necessarily produce many Inconveniences to your Majesties Subjects We do humbly present it as our Petition and Advice That when this present War is ended all your Souldiers which have been raised since the last Session of Parliament may be Disbanded 5. That your Majesty would be likewise pleased to consider of the Irregularities and Abuses in pressing Soldiers and to give Order for the Prevention thereof for the future 6. And although it hath been the Course of former Parliaments to desire Redress in their Grievances before they proceeded to give a Supply yet we have so full Assurance of your Majesties Tenderness and Compassion towards your People that we humbly prostrate our selves at your Majesties feet with these our Petitions desiring your Majesty to take them into your Princely Consideration and to give such Orders for the Relief of your Subjects and the Removing these Pressures as shall seem lest to your Roâ—al Wisdâ—m Address touching Ireland WE your Majesties most Loyal Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament assembled taking into Consideration the great Calamities which have formerly befallen your Majesties Subjects of the Kingdom of Ireland from the Popish Recusants there who for the most part are profest Enemies to the Protestant Religion and the English Interest and how they make use of your Majesties gracious Disposition and Clemency are at this time grown more insolent and presumptuous than formerly to the apparent Danger of that Kingdom and your Majesties Protestant Subjects there the Consequence whereof may likewise prove very fatal to this your Majesties Kingdom of England if not timely prevented And having seriously weighed what Remedies may be most properly applied to those growing Distempers do in all Humility present your Majesty with these our Petitions 1. That for the Establishment and Quieting the Possessions of your Majesties Subjects in that Kingdom your Majesty would be pleased to maintain the Act of Settlement and Explanatory Act thereupon and to recall the Commission of Enquiry into Irish Affairs bearing Date the 17th of January last as containing many new and extraordinary Powers not only to the Frejudice of particular Persons whose Estates and Titles are thereby made liable to be questioned but in a manner to the Overthrow of the Acts of Settlement And if pursâ—â—d may be the Occasion of great Charge and Attendance to many of your Subjects in Ireland and shake the Peace and Security of the whole 2. That your Majesty would give Order that no Papist be either continued or hereafter admitted to be Judges Justices of the Peace Sheriffs Coroners or Mayors Sovereigns or Portrieves in that Kingdom 3. That the Titular Popish Archbishops Bishops Vicars-General Ablâ—â—s and all other exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by the Popes Authority and in particular Peter Talbot pretended Archbishop of Dublin for his notorious Disloyalty to your Majesty and Disobedience and Contempt of your Laws may be commanded by Proclamation forthwith to depart out of Ireland and all other your Majesties Dominions or otherwise to be prosecuted according to Law And that all Convents Seminaties and Publick Popish Scholes may be dissolved and suppressed and the Secular Priests commanded to depart under the Penalty 4 That no Irish Papist be admitted to inhabit in any part of that Kingdom unless duly licensed according to the aforesaid Acts of Settlemenâ— and that your Majesty would be pleased to recall your Letters of the 26th of February 1671. And the Proclamation thereupon whereby general Licence is
Irlandois on peut dire qu'on leur doit une bonne partie de cette victoire That is to say And to give the English and Irish their due France is indebted to them in a large measure for this Victory But now to our Politician again Ils se haissent les uns les autres sont en division continuelle soit pour la Religion soit pour le Government The English says he hate one another and are still quarrelling either about Religion or Government These Indecencies would almost make a Man call them Names but let us pass without one angry word from the Interest of our Reputation to that of our Peace and enquire how they stand affected to us upon that point To say that England has not for a long time had any Troubles either at home or abroad which the French have not promoted or improv'd to their own advantage is to say no more than that they deal with us as they do with all the World beside so that we must e'en have recourse again to their Politicks for some particular Mark of their Favour where you shall find that our State-Mountebank has not yet shewn all his Tricks but puts himself with a very grave and fore-casting Countenance upon the very Project of our Ruine Une Guerre de France de trois ou quatre ans contre eux les ruinera entierement ainsi il semble qu'il ne faut point faire de paix avec eux qu' a des Conditions qui nous soient tres avantageuses A War says he of three or four Years with France would absolutely destroy the English so that methinks we should not entertain any Peace with them but upon very profitable Terms And then a little after In fine says he the way to undo the English is to make them keep an Army on foot and there 's no fear of their Landing in France but to their certain destruction unless they should be invited by a Rebellion without which their Troops will in a short time most undoubtedly fall foul one upon another To keep them upon continual Expence 't is but giving them the Alarm upon the Isles of Jersey and Guernsey Wight and Man Ireland and the Cinque Ports by which means they will be put upon the Charge of Fortifications and Garrisons which will perswade the People that the King intends to set up a Standing Army and an Arbitrary Government So long as this holds the Nation will never be at quiet but torment themselves with Fears and Jealousies which may be easily fomented by Letters in Cypher to such or such particular Persons and in such sort to be intercepted as shall be found convenient These Letters may give a Hint of a Descent in Ireland and elsewhere which would dispose the Irish who mortally hate the English to a Revolt and among the suspicious Multitude they would pass for Gospel This Contrivance would make the Scots also to bethink themselves of recovering their Liberty where there must be Parties made and the Sects encourag'd one against another especially the Roman Catholicks must be fairly handled and private Assurance given in the Name of the King of England to the Benedictins who are easie enough to be impos'd upon that they shall be restor'd to all their former Benefits according to the Printed Monasticon which will presently make the Roman Catholicks declare themselves and the Monks will move Heaven and Earth for the bringing of Matters about But then Care must be taken to carry on the Report that the King is of the Romish Religion which will distract the Government and throw all into an Absolute Confusion From hence we may gather First What Opinion the French have of us Secondly That it is not only their Desire and Study but a formed Design to embroyl us Thirdly That they will stick at nothing neither to compass that End be it never so foul Fourthly This Libeller has trac'd us out the very Methods of their working As by amusing the People with forged Letters of Intelligence where the first Author of the Plot must miraculously discover it By filling the Peoples Heads with Fears and Jealousies and leaving no Stone unturn'd in England Scotland and Ireland to stir up a Rebellion Why has he not advis'd the Poysoning of all our Fountains too which would have been a Course of as much Christianity and Honour But that this Trifler may not glorifie himself too much in his wondrous Speculations take Notice that he is only the Transcriber not the Author of this goodly Piece for the Original was betwixt Richlieu and Mazarine and it amounts to no more in effect than an imperfect History of the French Dealings with us for a long time and particularly in our late Troubles To come now from his most unmannerly Malice to his Reason of State if I am not mistaken England might longer subsist in a War with France than France could in a Peace within it self the heaviest of all Judgments when a Nation must be wicked upon necessity And again when he says That England cannot hurt France by a Descent unless call'd in by a Rebellion He never considers That if England had an Army a-foot and stood inclin'd to make use of it that way we should not be long without an Invitation For we see what the Bourdelois c. did upon their own Bottom and without any Forreign Encouragement and the whole Business miscarried only for want of a vigorous Second Lastly Give me leave to say that he has extreamly over-shot himself in one thing more for tho' this has been realty the Practice of the French and is at this day the very Model and Rule by which their Emissaries govern themselves it should yet have been kept as the greatest Secret in the World for the owning of these Inglorious Artifices in Publick makes it one of the grossest Libels that ever was written against the French Government to say nothing of his oversight in disobliging the Roman Catholicks and laying Snares to trepan them The Question of Trade has been so beaten already that there remains little to be added to it Nor in truth needs it since it is agreed on all hands that the French set up for an Universal Commerce as well as for an Universal Monarchy And in effect the one is but a necessary consequent upon the other Nor is it enough it seems for us to be design'd upon by them without lending them our Hands towards the Cutting of our own Throats For upon a sober and judicious Estimate we are Losers by our Trade with France at least a Million and an half per Annum I shall conclude this Head with one passage more out of our Pelitiques of France And you 'll say 't is a pleasant one too but it must be under the Rose Upon a presupposal of Mischief that 's a Brewing in England Now says he it will be our Business to renew our Alliance with Holland we can wheedle them into an
prevent or Check the French will have an Army of at least 50000 Men about Lorain Luxenburg and Burgundy to face the Imperialists and at the same Time with as many more perhaps they will seize upon the Dutchy of Juliers and of Cleves and from thence pass the Rhine to countenance those that are of the French Cabal on the side of Westphalia and so in due time several other Princes of the Empire It is remarkable that in Three Years War against the Confederates his most Christian Majesty has not only stood his ground without losing so much as one Inch of his Ancient Patrimony but actually and almost without Opposition taken several Towns and some entire Provinces from the Principals of the Confederacy And made himself almost as considerable at Sea as he is at Land Not only in the Mediterranean and upon the Coasts of Spain and Italy but in America too where he has laid a Foundation of great Mischief both to England and Holland in the point of Commerce if not timely prevented And he does little less by his Money than by his Arms for he pays all and with French Money under pretext of Neutrality maintains considerable Armies in the very heart of the Empire which 't is feared will be ready enough upon any distaster to joyn with the Common Enemy It is the French Court that manages the Counsels of Poland and they govern the Swisse no less who by the Conquest of the Franche County are made little better then slaves And yet by a fatal Blindness that Republick still furnishes the French with the best of their Soldiers and helps forward the Destruction of Europe never dreaming that they themselves are to be undone too at last But it is no great matter you 'l say to impose upon the Swisse which are a heavy and Phlegmatick People but the French Charms have bewitch'd even Italy it self though a Nation the most Clear-sighted and suspicious of all others For their Republicks lie as quiet as if they were asleep though the Fire is already kindled in Sicily and the Danger brought home to their own Doors It is a wonder that they lay things no more to heart considering First the Passages the French have to favour their Entry Secondly That they are many and small States weak and easily to be corrupted if not so already Thirdly that though they have been formerly very brave and many particulars remain so still yet in the generality they are soft and effeminate And Fourthly that the French is there the Master of the Seas These Reflections methinks might convince any Man of the Condition they are in And certainly they that were not able to defend themselves against Charles the Eighth will be much less able to encounter Lewis the 14th Or if he gets in to drive him out again as they did the Other For they must do it wholly upon their own Strength having only the Turk in Condition to help them For Germany and Spain are sunk already And the Swisse will neither dare to venture upon 't nor are they able to do it if they had a mind tot As for Spain it is neither Populous nor fortifi'd and perhaps want of Provisions may keep it from an Invasion And yet for all that with a Body of Thirty or Forty Thousand Men by the way of Fontaraby and as many by Catalonia the French may if they please in two Campania's make themselves Masters of Navarre Arragon Catalonia and Valentia and then it is but fortifying the Frontiers and making his Catholick Majesty a Tributary in Castile Who must content himself to take what they please to give him over and above in consideration of his Dominions in Italy and the Spanish Indies A Possibility that England and Holland shall do well to think of For when he has the Mines in his Power and Europe under his Feet there will be no contending After this they have only the Swisse or the English to fall upon next For the Former they are neither fortified nor united in Affections or Religion As for England They are a People not naturally addicted to the French sensible of their Honour and of their Interest and the whole World is convinced of their Courage They are United under the Government of a Gracious Prince and their Concerns are at this Instant lodged in the hands of the most Loyal and Publick-spirited Representatives that ever acted in that Station beside the Strength of the Island by Situation So that the French would find it a hard matter either to make a Conquest here or if they should surprize it to keep it But yet they have finer Ways to Victory than by Force of Arms and their Gold has done them better Service than their Iron What have we now to do then but in a Common Cause to arm against a Common Oppression This is the time or never for Italy to enter into a League for their Common Safety and not only to keep but if possible to force the French from their Borders while the Imperial Army holds the Capital Power of France in Play And this is the time too for the Swisse to recal all their Troops out of the French Service and to strike a general League also for the Recovery of Burgundy the only Outwork of their Liberties and to expel the French Garrisons and deliver the places into the hands of the Right Owners And will it not concern Poland as much as any of the rest that stands and falls with the Empire as the Defence of Christendom against the Turks and whose own turn is next This Alarm methinks should call off the Princes from the Acquisitions they have made upon part of the Swedes Possessions in the Empire to the Assistance of the Spanish Netherlands and make all the French Mercenaries in the Empire to bethink themselves of returning from the Delusions which either the French Artifice or Money has imposed upon them He that has no regard for the Head will have less for the Dependences when he has them at his Mercy Nay the very French themselves should do well to contemplate the Slavery that is now prepar'd for them Their Laws and Liberties are trampled upon and till the French Government be reduc'd to the Bounds of its Ancient Constitution neither the People nor their Neighbours can ever be secure In this dangerous Crisis of Affairs it has pleas'd Divine Providence to leave England the Arbitress of the Fate of Europe and to annex such advantages to the Office that the Honour the Duty and Security of this Nation seem to be wrapt up together In the Point of Honour what can be more Generous than to succour the Miserable and the Oppress'd and to put a stop to that Torrent that threatens Christendom with an Universal Deluge Beside the Vindication of our selves for those Affronts and Indignities both Publick and Private that we have suffer'd upon our own Account And then in matter of Duty It is not only Christendom
the Face to turn them again upon you after they have made all this Noise for Liberty And the Church of England you may be assured will not any more trouble you but when a Protestand Prince shall come will joyn in the Healing of all our Breaches by removing all things out of the way which have long hindred that blessed Work They cannot meet together in a Body to give you this Assurance how should they without the Kings Authority so to do but every particular Person that I have discoursed withal which are not a few and you your selves would do well to ask them when you meet them profess that they see an absolute Necessity of making an end of these Differences that have almost undone us and will no longer contend to bring all Men to one Vniformity but promote an Vniform Liberty Do not imagine I intend to give meer Words I meâ—n honestly such a regular Liberty as will be the Beauty and Honour not the Blot and Discredit of our Religion To such a Temper the Archbishop of Canterbury with several other Bishops of his Province and their Clergy have openly declared they are willing to come And the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England have never been know to act deceitfully Our Religion will not at any time allow them to equivecate nor to give good VVords without a Meaning much less at such a time as this when our Religion is in great danger and we have nothing to trust unto but Gods Protection of sincere Persons Let Integrity and Vprightness preserve us is their constant Prayer They can hope for no Help from Heaven if they should prevaricate with Men. God they know would desert them if they should go about to delude their Brethren And they are not so void of common Sense as to adventure to incur his most high Displeasure when they have nothing to rely upon but his Favour In short Trust to those who own you for their Brethren as you do them for though they have been angry Brethren yet there is hope of Reconciliation between such near Relations But put no Confidence in those who not only utterly disown any such Relation to you but have ever treated you with an implacable Hatred as their most mortal Enemies unto whom it is impossible they should be reconciled Prov. 12.19 20. The Lips of Truth shall be established for ever but a lying tongue is but for a mâ—ment Lying Lips are an Abomination to the Lord but they that deal truly are his Delight Abby and other Church-Lands not yet assured to such Possessors as are Roman Catholicks Dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of that Religion SInce it is universally agreed on that so great a Matter as the total Alienation of all the Abby-Lands c. in England can never be made legal and valid and such as will satisfie the reasonable Doubts and Scruples of a religious and conscientions Person except it be confirm'd by the Supreme Authority in this Church t is evident that the Protestants who assert the Church of England to be Autokephalos and such as allows of no Foreign Jurisdiction or Appeals having had these Lands confirmed to them by the King as Head of the Chuech the Convocation as the Church Representative and by the King and Parliament as the Supreme Legislative Power in this Realm have these Alienations made as valid to them as any Power on Earth can make them but the Members of the Church of Rome who maintain a Foreign and Supreme Jurisdiction either in a General Council or in the Bishop of Rome or both together cannot have these Alienations confirm'd to them without the Consent of one or both of these Superior Jurisdictions If therefore I shall make it appear that these Alienations in England were never confirm'd by either I do not see how any Roman Catholick in England can without Sacriledge retain them and his Religion together As to the first of these since there hath been no Council from the first Alienation of Abby-Lands in England to this Day that pretends to be general but that of Trent we need only look into that for the Satisfaction of such Roman Catholicke as esteem a General Council above the Bishop of Rome And I am sure that that Council is so far from confirming these Abby-Lands to the present Possessors that it expresly denounceth them accursed that detain them Sess 22. Decret de Ref. Cap. 11. Si quem c. If Covetousness the Root of all Evil shall so far possess any Person whatsoever whether of the Clergy or Laity though he be an Emperor or a King as that by Force Fear or Fraud or any Art or Colour whatsoever he presume to convert to his own Use and usurp the Jurisdiction Goods Estates Fruits Profits or Emoluments whatever of any Church or any Benefice Secular or Regular Hospital or Religious House or shall hinder that the Profits of the said Houses be not received by those to whom they do of right belong let him lie under an Anathema till the said Jurisdiction Goods Estates Rents and Prosits which he hath possessed and invaded or which have come to him any manner of way be restored to the Church and after that have Absolution from the Bishop of Rome So great a Terror did this strike into the English Papists that were Possessors of Church-Lands against whom this Anathema seems particularly directed that many of the zealous Papists began to think of Restitution and Sir William Peters notwithstanding his private Bull of Absolution from Pope Juâ—â—us the Fourth was so much startled at it as that the very next Year he endowed eight new Fellowships in Exeter-Colledge in Oxford Again the same Council Sess 25. Decret de Râ—f c. 2 â— Cupiens Sancta Synodus c. Decreeth and commandeth that all the Holy Ca 〈◊〉 and General Councils and Apostolick Sanctions in Favour of Ecclesiastical Persons and the Liberties of the Church and against those that violate them be exactly observed by eveâ—y 〈◊〉 and doth farther admonish the Emperor Kings Princes and all Persons of what Estate soever that they would observe the Rights of the Church as the Commands of God and defend them by their particular Patronage nor suffer them to be invaded by any Lords or Gâ—ntlemen whaâ—soever but severely punish all those who hinder the Liâ—â—wâ—â—ies Immâ—â—ities and Jurildictions of the Church and that they would imitate those excellent Princes who by their Authority and Bounty encreased the Revenues of the Church so far were they from suffering them to be invadâ—â— and in this let every one sedulously perform his part c. And now after so full and express Declaration of the Council of Trent I do not â—â—e how any of those Râ—man Catholicks who esteem a general Council to be the Supreme Authority in the Church and receive the Trent Council as such can any way excuse themselves in point of Conscience from these heavy Curses that are there denounc'd against all those
that detain Church-Lands especially since the Papists themselves â—ehâ—mently accuse King Henry the eighth for sacrilegiously robbing of Religious Houses and seising of their Lands a great pâ—â—t of which Lands are to this very day possess'd by Papists Now though there may be some Plea for the Popes Authority in the interim of a general Council and in such things wherein they have made no determination yet in this matter there is no colour for any pretences since the Council of Trent was actually assembled within sew years after these Alienations and expresly condemned the possessors of Abby Lands and after all this was all consirm'd and ratified by the Pope himself in his Bulla Super conf gen Concil Trid. A. D. 1564. And tho' we have here the Judgment of the infallible See as to this matter in the Consirmation of the Trent Council yet because there be some that magnifie the Popes extravagant and unlimited power over the Church and pretend that he confirm'd the Abby-Lands in England to the Lay-possessors of them I shall shew Secondly That the Pope neither hath nor pretends to any such Power nor did ever make use of it in this matter under debate only I shall premise that whereas some part of the Canon Law seems to allow of such particular alienations as are made by the Clerks and Members of the Church with the consent of the Bishop yet such free consent was never obtained in England and as to what was done by force fraud and violence is of so little moment as to giving a legal Title that even the alienations that were made by Charles Martell who is among the Papists themselves as infamous for Sacriledge as King Henry the Eighth yet even his Acts are said to be done by a Council of Bishops as is acknowledg'd by Dr. Johnston in his assurance of Abby Lands p. 27. I shall proceed to shew First That the Pope hath no such power as to confirm these Alienations and this is expresly determined by the infallible Pope Damasus in the Canon-Law Caus 12.9.2 c. 20. The Pope cannot alienate Lands belonging to the Church in any manner or for any necessity whatsoever both the buyer and the seller lie under an Anathema till they be restored so that any Church-man may oppese any such Alienations and again require the Lands and Profits so Alienated So that here we have a full and express Determination of the infallible See And tho in Answer to this it is urg'd by Dr. Johnston that this Canon is with small difference published by Binius in the Councils and so as to confine it to the suburbicacy Diocess of Rome yet that this Answer is wholly trivial will appear First Because if the Bishop of Rome hath no Authority to confirm such alienations in his own peculiar Diocess where he hath most power much less can he do it in the Provinces where his power is less Secondly That in all Ecclesiastical Courts of the Church of Rome it is not Binius's Edition of the Councils but Gratian's Collection of Canons that is of Authority in which Book these words are as here quoted Thirdly Since this Book of the Popes Decree hath been frequently reprinted by the Authority and Command of several Popes and constantly used in their Courts this is not to be look'd upon as a Decree of Pope Damasus only but of all the succeeding Popes and in the opinion of F. Ellis Sermon before the King Decem. 5. 1686. p. 21. what is inserted in the Canon Law is become the whole Judgment of the whole-Church Fourthly It 's absolutely forbid by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth in his Bull presixed before the Canon-Law A. D. 1580. for any one to add or invert any thing in that Book So that according to this express Determination in the Popes own Law the Bishops of Rome have no power to confirm any such Alienations as have been made in England and agreeable to all this Pope Julius the Fourth the very person that is pretended to have confirm'd these Alienations declar'd to our English Ambassadors that were sent upon that Errand That if he had Power to grant it he would do it most readily but his Authority was not so large F. Paul's H. of Council of Trent Lond. A. D. 1629. And therefore all Confirmations from the Bishop of Rome are already prejudg'd to be invallid and of no force at all Secondly No Bishop of Rome did ever confirm them The Breve of Pope Julius the Third which gave Cardinal Pool the largest powers towards the effecting this had this express limitation Salvo tamen in his quibus propttr renem magnitudinem gravitatem haec Sancta sedes merito tibi videtur consulenda nostro prefatae sedis beneplacito confirmatione i. e. Saving to us in these matters in which by reason of their weight and greatness this Holy See may justly seem to you that of right it ought to be consulted the good pleasure and confirmation of us and of the holy See which is the true English to that Latin and that this whole Kingdom did then so understand these words is evident from the Ambassadors that were sent to Rome the next Spring Viz. Viscount Moitecute Bishop of Ely and Sir Edward Carn These being one to represent every state of the Kingdom to obtain of him a Confirmation of all those Graces which Cardinal Pool had granted Burnet's H. Ref p. 2. f. 300. So that in the esteem of the whole Nation what the Cardinal had done was not valid without the Confirmation of the Pope himself Now this Pope Julius and the next Marcellus both died before there is any pretence of any Confirmation from Rome but this was at length done by Pope Paul the Fourth is pretended and for proof of it three things are alledged First The Journals of the House of Commons where are these words After which was read a Bill from the Popes Holiness confirming the doing of my Lord Cardinal touching the assurance of Abby Lands c. Secondly a Bull of the same Pope to Sir Will Peters Thirdly The Decrees of Cardinal Peol and his Life by Dudithius To all which I answer First That it s confess'd on all hands that there is no such Bull or Confirmation by Pope Paul the Fourth to be any where found in the whole World not any Copy or Transcript of it not in all the Bullaria nor our own Rolls and Records tho' it be a matter of so great moment to the Roman Catholicks of England and what cannot be produced may easily be denied Nor can it be imagined that a Journal of Lay-persons that were parties concerned or a private Bull to Sir Will Peters or some hints in the Decrees and Life of the Cardinal will be of any moment in a Court at Rome whensoever a matter of that vast consequence as all the Abby Lands in England shall come to be disputed especially if it be observed that this very Journal of the House of Commonâ— is
earnest to have those Laws maintained in their full and due vigour and think that the chief Security of the established Religion consists in the preserving of them Sacred and unshaken It is certain that there is no Kingdom Common-Wealth or any constituted Body or Assembly whatsoever in which there are not Laws made for the Safety thereof and that provide against all Attempts whatsoever that disturb their peace and that prescribe the Conditions and Qualities that they judge necessary for all that shall bear Employments in that Kingdom State or Corporation And no man can pretend that there is any Injury done him that he is not admitted to Imployments when he doth not satisfie the Conditions and Qualities required Nor can it be denied that there is a great difference to be observed in the conduct of those of the Reformed Religion and of the Roman Catholicks towards one another The Roman Catholicks not being satisfied to exclude the Reformed from all places of Profit or of Trust they do absolutely suppress the whole Exercise of that Religion and persecute all that profess it and this they do in all those places where it is safe and without danger to carry on that rigour And I am sorry that we have at this present so many deplorable Instances of this severity before our Eyes that is at the same time put in practice in so many different places I would therefore gladly see one single good reason to move a Protestant that fears God and that is concerned for his Religion to consent to the Repealing of those Laws that have been enacted by the Authority of King and Parliament which have no other tendency but to the security of the Reformed Religion and to the restraining of the Roman Catholicks from a capacity of overturning it these Laws inflict neither Fines nor Punishments and do only exclude the Roman Catholicks from a share in the Government who by being in Employments must needs study to encrease their party and to gain to it more Credit and Power which by what we see every day we must conclude will be extreamly dangerous to the Reformed Religion and must turn to its great prejudice Since in all places those that are in publick Employments do naturally Favour that Religion of which they are either more or less And who would go about to perswade me or any man else to endeavour to move Their Highnesses whom God hath honoured so far as to make them the Protectors of his Church to approve of or to consent to things so hurtful both to the Reformed Religion and to the publick Safety Nor can I Sir with your good leave in any way grant what you apprehend That no prejudice will thereby redound to the Reformed Religion I know it is commonly said that the number of the Roman Catholicks in England and Scotland is very inconsiderable and that they are possessed only of a very small number of the places of Trust Tho even as to this the case is quite different in Ireland Yet this you must of necessity grant me that if their numbers are small then it is not reasonable that the publick Peace should be disturbed on the account of so few persons especially when so great a favour may be offered to them such as the free Exercise of their Religion would be And if their numbers are greater then there is so much the more reason to be afraid of them I do indeed believe that Roman Catholicks as things at present stand will not be very desirous to be in publick Offices and Imployments nor that they will make any attempts upon the Reformed Religion both because this is contrary to Law and because of the great inconveniencies that this may bring at some other time both on their Persons and their Estates yet if the Restraints of the Law were once taken off you would see them brought into the Government and the chief Offices and Places of Trust would be put in their hands nor will it be easie to his Majesty to resist them in this how stedfast soever he may be for they will certainly press his hard in it and they will represent this to the King as a matter in which his Conscience will be concerned and when they are possessed of the publick Offices what will be left for the Protestants to do who will find no more the support of the Law and can expect little Encouragement from such Magistrates And on the other hand the advantages that the Roman Catholicks would find in being thus set loose from all restraints are so plain that it were a loss of time to go about the proving it I neither can nor will doubt of the sincerity of his Majesties intentions and that he has no other design before him in this matter but that all his Subjects may enjoy in all things the same Rights and Freedom But plain Reason as well as the Experience of all Ages the present as well as the past shews that it will be impossible for Roman Catholicks and Protestants when they are mixed together in places of Trust and publick Employments to live together peaceably or to maintain a good Correspondence together They will be certainly always jealous of one another For the Principles and the Maxims of both Religions are so opposite to one another that in my opinion I do not see how it will be in the power of any Prince or King whatsoever to keep down those Suspitions and Animosities which will be apt to arise upon all occasions As for that which you apprehend that the Dissenters shall not be delivered from the Penal Laws that are made against them unless at the same time the Test be likewise repealed This will be indeed a great unhappiness to them but the Roman Catholicks are only to blame for it who will rather be content that they and their Posterity should lie still under the weight of the Penal Laws and exposed to the hatred of the whole Nation than he still restrained from a capacity of attempting any thing against the Peace and the Security of the Protestant Religion And be deprived of that small advantage if it is at all to be reckoned one of having a share in the Government and publick Enjoyments since in all places of the World this has been always the priviledge of the Religion that is established by Laws and indeed these Attempts of the Roman Catholicks ought to be so much the more suspected and guarded against by Protestants in that they see that Roman Catholicks even when liable to that Severity of Penal Laws do yet endeavour to perswade his Majesty to make the Protestants whether they will or not dissolve the Security which they have for their Religion And to clear a way for bringing in the Roman Caâ—â—â—licks to the Government and to publick Employments In which case there would remain no relief for them but what were to be expected from a Roman Catholick Government Such then will be very unjust to
Opportunity is precious and very slippery and if they let the present Occasion pass by they can hardly ever hope that it will be possible for them to recover it That their Fathers and Grand-fathers would have thought themselves in Heaven to have had such an Offer as this is in any of the four last Reigns and therefore that they had better be contented with Half a Loaf than no Bread I mean it will be their VVisdom to embrace this Golden Occasion of putting themselves on a Level with all other English Men at least as to their private Capacity and to disarm once for all the severity of those Laws which if ever they should come to be in good earnest executed by a Protestant Successor will make England too hot for them And therefore I should particularly advise those among them who have the Honour to approach his Majesty to use their Credit to prevail with him to make this so necessary a step in Favour of the Nation since the Successors have advanced two Thirds of the way for effecting so good and pious a VVork Then and not till then the R. C's may think themselves secured and his Majesty may hope to be great by translating Fear and Anger from the Breasts of his Subjects to the Hearts of his Own and the Nations Enemies But if an evil Genius which seems to have hovered over us now a long time will have it otherwise if I were a R. C. I could meddle no more but live quiet at home and caress my Protestant Neighbours and in so doing I should think my self better secured against the Resentments of the Nation than by all the Forces Forts Leagues Garranties and even Men Children that His Majesty may hope to leave behind him As for the Protestant Dissenters I am confident the Body of them will continue to behave themselves like Men who to their great Honour have ever preferred the Love of their Country and Religion to all Dangers and Favours whatsoever but there are both weak and interested Men among all great Numbers I would have them consider how much the state of things is altered upon the coming out of this Letter for if hitherto they have been too forward in giving Ear to Proposals on this Mistake that they could never have such a favorable Juncture for getting the Laws against them repealed I hope now they are undeceived since the Successors have pawn'd their Faith and Honour for it which I take to be a better security as Matters go at present than the so much talked of Magna Charta for Liberty of Conscience would be tho got in a legal way for our Judges have declared That Princes can dispense with the Obligation of Laws but they have not yet given their Opinion that they can dispense with the Honour of their Word nor have their Highnesses any Confessor to supply such an Omission However it is not to be charged on their Highnesses if such a Magna Charta be not at present given them provided the Test be let alone but I fear the Roman Catholicks Zeal will have all or nothing and the Test too must be repealed by wheedling the Dissenters to joyn with willing Sheriffs in violating the Rights of Elections which are the Root of the Liberties of England prudent way of recommending their Religion to all true English Men. But if any of the Dissenters be so destitute of Sense and Honesty as to prefer a Magna Charta so obtained Void and Null in it self to their own Honour and Conscience to the Love and Liberties of their Countrey to the present Kindness of all good Men and their Countenance at another time and above all to the Favour and Word of the Successors who have now so generously declared themselves for them We may pronounce that they are Men abandoned to a reprobate Sence who will justly deserve Infamy and the hatred of the Nation at present and its Resentments hereafter Is it possible that any Dissenter who either deserves or loves the Reputation of an honest Man can be prevailed with by any pretences of Insinuations how plausible soever to make so odious and pernicious a Bargain as that of buying a precarious pretended Liberty of Conscience at the price of the Civil Liberties of their Country and at the price of removing that which under God is the most effectual Bar to keep us from the Dominion of a Religion that would as soon as it could force us to abandon our own or reduce us to the miserable Condition of those of our Neighbours who are glad to forsake all they have in the World that they may have their Souls and Lives for a Prey As for the Church of England their Clergy have of late opposed themselves to Popery with so much Learning Vigor Danger and Success that I think all honest Dissenters will lay down their Resentments against them and look on that Church as the present Bulwark and Honour of the Protestant Religion I wish those high Men among them who have so long appropriated to themselves the Name and Authority of the Church of England and have been made Instruments to bring about Designs of which their present Behaviour convinces me they were ignorant as I suppose many of the Dissenters are whose turn it is now to be the Tools I say I wish such Men would consider to what a pass they have brought Matters by their Violences or rather the Violences of these whose Property they were and at length be wise They cannot but be sensible of the Advantages they receive by this Letter I suppose they apprehend I am sure they ought to do it that the Ruine of their Church is resolv'd onâ— But if the Dissenters upon this Letter withdraw themselves the R. C's have neither Hearts to keep firm to such a Resolution nor Hands to execute it Since therefore they themselves have unhappily brought their Church into such Precepices by provoking the Dissenters it is in a particular manner their Duty as well as their Interest to endeavour to soften them by assisting the Letter and promoting the Design of it But if the old Leaven still remain and they continue to argue as formerly if the Surplice be parted with the Church of England is lost if the Penal Laws be repealed the Test wâ—â— follow and comfort themselves with this most Christian Reflection that the R. Câ—â— will 〈◊〉 accept of what is offered them such Men deserve all the Misery that is preparing for them and will perish without Pity and give thinking Men occasion to remember the Proveâ—â— But a Fool or a Zealot in a Mortar yet his Foolishness will not depart from him But the Disseâ—â—â—â— ought not to be much concerned at this they have their own Bigots and the Church â—â—â—land theirs there will be Tools whilst there are Workmen This is a time for Wisdom to be justified of her Children when honest Men 〈…〉 off minding the lesser Interests of this or that particular Church and
persons to sit in Parliament and to exercise Offices in Church and State is only to declare that they do believe there is not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration by any persons whatsoever and that the Invocation of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now used in the Church of Rome are Superstitious and Idolatrous And this Declaration the Non-conformists are of all people the most inclinable and forward to make and therefore very far by vertue of those Statutes from standing incapable of any Trust Office and Employment that other Subjects are admitted unto Nor hath there been a Protestant Dissenter since the first hour that these Laws were enacted that ever scrupled to take the Tests or that was precluded from Office and Employment for refusing them But on the contrary several of the most famous Dissenters such as Sir John Hartop Alderman Love and Mr. Eyles persons who at all times have kept at the greatest distance from Communion with the Church of England by reason of her Forms and Ceremonies are known to have chearfully made the Declaration contained in the Test Laws and thereupon to have sit as Members in divers Parliaments And as a further demonstration of the impudence and dishonesty of our Author in this particular it is not unworthy of remark that tho' the King hath taken upon him to dispense with the Tests and to prohibit the requiring them yet the Dissenters who have since that time been preferred to publick Trusts continue still to take them and go to the respective Courts where by Law the Declaration is enjoined to be exacted and there demand the being admitted to make it Tho' in the mean season they cannot be unsensible that it is the thing in the World whereby they most highly offend his Majesty it being both a proclaiming the Illegality of that Authority which he challengeth of dispensing with Laws and a defeating so far as lieth in them his great design as well as artifice for the introducing of Popery which his Soul is so much in travel with And were not this Author both a person of a most depraved Conscience and destitute of all common sense he would never have slandered Monsieur Fagel and so egregiously perverted his plain meaning as to tell us that tho' he be a Hollander and a Non-conformist yet he thanks God for the Test Laws by which his Non-conforming Brethren in England of what degree and quality soever they be stand excluded from Publick Employments For every one that will be so kind to himself and so just to the Pensionary as to read his Letter will immediately discern that there is not one word in it upon which to superstruct this calumny and accusation seeing he therein affirms in repeated and emphatical Terms that all contained in and designed by the Test Laws is the securing the Reformed Religion thro' the having provided that none be allowed to sit in Parliament nor admitted to Publick Offices except they declare that they are of the Reformed and not of the Roman Catholick Religion So that how Monsieur Fagel's Non-conformity Brethren in England should come to be affected by these Laws so as to receive any prejudice by them is that which none but a person of our Author's wit integrity and candor could have had the faculty either to conceive or alledge But that we may come to the second particular there is the less reason to wonder at this Gentleman's calumniating Mijn Heer Fagel and affixing dull tho' malicious Forgeries of his own unto him if we do but consider-with what petulancy and injustice he treats Their Serene Highnesses and at the gate of their own Court assumeth the confidence to misrepresent lessen and asperse them The nearness which those Princes stand in to the ascending the English Throne and the joyful prospect which all Protestants have of it exciteth a discontent and rage in our Author which he knows not how either to suppress or govern For not to mention what we learn of the kindness of Roman Catholicks to an Heir professing the Reformed Religion from the proceedings of Sixtus Quintus and the Papists in France towards Henry 4. we are sufficiently instructed what good will they bear to a Protestant Successor by the Bull which Clement 8. published about the End of Queen Elizabeth's Reign For the Supream and Infallible Head does therein ordain That when it should happen to that miserable Woman to die they should admit none to the Crown quantumque propinquitate sanguinis niterentur nisi ejusmodi essent qui fidem Catholicam non modo tolerarent sed omni ope ac studio promoverent more majorum jurejurando se id praestituros susciperent whatsoever Right and Title they should have thereunto by vertue of their next affinity in blood unless they should first swear not only to tolerate but to advance and establish the Romish Religion Nor can I avoid being filled with fear and reverence to the safety of some certain persons when I remember how Cardinal Baronius commends Irene for murdering the Emperor her Son because he was against the Worship of Images and not only calls it Justitiae zelum a righteous zeal but adds Christum docuisse summum pietatis genus esse in hoc adversus filium esse fidelem That Christ hath taught the perfiction of Religion in such a case to consist in fidelity to the Church tho' by destroying one that was both her Son and her Soveraign 'T is a high piece of injustice in our Author towards Their Highnesses and calculated for no other end but to alienate his Majesties affections from them when he tells us that the thing aimed at in the writing of the Pensionary's Letter as well as that pursued in the manner of publishing it was to obstruct the King's righteous pious designs and to render them unpracticable For the Letter being written in obedience to the Command of Their Highnesses to declare their Opinion in reference to the several matters about which it treateth it plainly follows that tho' Mijn Heer Fagel be accountable for the manner of cloathing and delivering their thoughts and for the Order and Method in which things are digested and possibly for the ratiocinations by which they are supported and enforced yet that the Prince and Princess are the persons who are alone responsible for the End unto which it was intended And it appears to have been so far from their intentions thereby to obstruct and defeat any pious and just designs of his Majesty that nothing can be more visible than that as it is admirably adapted to the giving ease and security to all his Protestant Subjects so it offereth means for relieving the Papists from the severe Laws to which they are liable and for the granting them a Warranty in a legal way for the exercise of their Religion Nor doth it
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
shift Instruments and to betake themselves to the Nonconformists whose assistance the better to engage they have not only suspended all the Penal Laws to which the Dissenters were liable but have endeavoured to fill ' them with jealousy and apprehension of danger from the Test Acts tho at the same time they know that Nonconformists never either did or could receive prejudice by them Only they are sensible that if they could work up that easie people into such a belief they should thereby not only obtain their concurrence and abettment for the rescinding of those Laws that are at present the only great remaining Fence about our Religion and upon the abrogation whereof nothing could hinder the Papists from getting into a condition to extirpate it but make them a formed and united Body with themselves against the Prince and Princess of Orange who have with so much Wisdom Courage and Integrity declared that they are against the having them repealed And as the Dissenters cannot have so far renounced all regard both to honesty and to a good name as to be fond of being herded with the Papists or thank our Author for it so they must be become void of all sense and understanding if they suffer themselves to be either wheedled or frighted into an opinion of their being subject to receive any dammage by the Tests it being so expresly contrary both to the Terms of those Laws and to their own experience Nor can they be so far abandoned of God nor prove so treacherous to the Nation Posterity and the whole Protestant Interest thro' Europe as to cooperate to the Repeal of them by destroying that great Fence about the Reformed Religion in England and to put the Papists into capacity both of subverting it there and every where else And setting aside a few mercenary fellows among them there is no ground to fear after we have had so many proofs of their zeal for the Protestant Religion and English Liberties in the worst of times and under the greatest Temptations that they should at this season when all others behave themselves with so much Integrity and Courage be accessory to so villanous a thing The ill success which the Court hath met with in the several Towns and City's since the late Regulation of the Corporations sufficiently shews that the Dissenters who were put into Magistracy in hopes by them to have compassed the packing of a Parliament are no less careful of preserving the Test Laws than they of the Church of England Communion were who were displaced to make way for them And to discover the grossness of the abuse which our Author without regard to Truth or Ingenuity endeavours to put upon them as if they were judged by their Highnesses to be incapable of Trusts and Employments or any ways concluded to stand under those restraints by the Test which the Roman Catholicks do there is not one word in Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter whereby they are said to be subject unto them or by which there is any ground administred of fancying they are put into the same rank with the Papists and whereby to fear that they may hereafter come to be treated accordingly But in stead of this they are expresly told that Their Highnesses do both allow and desire the abrogation of all the Penal Laws against Dissenters and the having them freed from the severity of them and that they do not only consent but heartily approve of their having an entire liberty granted them for the full exercise of their Religion without any trouble or hindrance or being left exposed to the least molestation or inconvenience upon that account And to testifie how far the Nonconformists are from being in the least menaced by those Laws it is again Declared that the only reason why their Highnesses refuse to consent to the having them repealed is because that they have no other tendency save to Secure the Reformed Religion from the Designs of the Papists by containing provisions in the vertue of which those only may be kept out of Office who can not testifie that they are of the Reformed and not of the Roman Catholick Religion Which as it is the highest evidence imaginable of their own stedfastness and integrity in the Reformed Religion and of the compassion and love which they equally bear to all who profess it and how careful they will at all times be to have it maintained and supported so it is the putting such a merit upon all Protestants that it should engage their prayers for their happy extation to the Throne and make them ambitious as well as willing and ready to hazard their lives and Fortunes for the securing the Succession unto them if any should be so wicked as to go about to preclude them But I must pay a further attendance upon our Author and accompany him to the fifth particular which I promised to consider namely that according to his own foolish and incoherent way of writing while he pretends to commend and justify the proceeding of His Majesty of Great Brittain he publisheth the villany of the Papal Church and proclaims the dishonour and injustice of diverse Eminent Monarchs and Princes of the Romish Communion His Panegyricks upon the King of England are so many just Satyr's upon the Church of Rome the Monarch of France and the Duke of Savoy c. For if it be becoming a Christian to be of a contrary judgment to those who are for persecuting such as differ from the publick and established Religion and if it be a sentiment worthy of a Royal mind that none ought to be oppressed for their Consciences in Divine Matters what characters of irreligion ignominy wickedness are due unto them who judge it to be meritorious to destroy sincere Christians for no other pretended Crime save that they cannot believe as the Pope and the Church of Rome do Surely our Author must either be extreamly ignorant of the Doctrine of his own Church and of the bloody and barbarous practices pursuant thereunto both at this day and for many ages past or else he must be the most unsincere miscreant that ever writ or at best be guilty of the inconsistency and folly as to continue in the Communion of a Church whose Articles of Faith he condemns as Antichristian and whose practices according to the Terms made necessary for Salvation he abhorreth both as unworthy of Royal Minds and contrary to Christian Piety But tho nothing can render a false man honest or a foolish Man wise yet seeing something may be done towards the curing a person's ignorance if he be teachable or at least to shew his obstinacy and that the fault is in his will not in his Understanding if he will not learn and be convinced I shall therefore both acquaint him a little with the Doctrine of that Church and briefly put him in remembrance how these of the Romish Fellowship have therefore persecuted Christians and still continue so to do only for differing
from the publick and established Religion As to the first it is sufficiently known that according to the judgment of the Church of Rome we are Hereticks and that Heresie being Crimen laesae Majestatis Divinae we are therefore the worst of Traitors and liable to the Penalties of the greatest High Treason And thereupon we are not only declared to be infamous and sentenced to be deprived of all Honor and Dignity and to be incapable of all Offices and have our Estates confiscated and seised but we are condemned to be burnt and if that cannot conveniently be effected it is both made lawful and meritorious to extirpate us by War or Massacre as shall be best and most safe for the Church of Rome In order whereunto not only all Laws made for our Security are declared to be null and that no promises made unto us ought to be kept but all Princes that neglect to destory and extirpate us are proclaimed to be deposed And sutable hereunto has their carriage been for many ages to such as differ from them in Articles of Faith and will not joyn in their Superstitions and Idolatries In proof where of I neither need to insist upon the infinite Murders committed by the Inquisition the most Devilish Engine of Cruelty that ever the World was acquainted with nor to reflect so far backward as the Parisian and Irish Massacres or the infinite Slaughters perpetrated heretofore in France Germany and the Low Countreys c. seeing we have such fresh and doleful evidences of the mercy and gentleness of the Papal Church in the ungrateful inhumane perjurious and salvage persecutions executed so lately in France and Piedmont If it be the effect of Royal and Paternal affection in the King of England to his Subjects that all he endeavoureth is to treat them as becomes a common Father without making any distinction between one and another as our Author is pleased to call it in his Testimony concerning him what cruel Parents must many Princes of the Roman Communion be who act with that difference towards their people that while they cherish and embrace some they tear out the Bowels and suck the blood of others And if no Society destitute of such tender and Christian affections can merit the name of a Church we hence learn where to fasten the character of being the Mother of Harlots In that we not only know whose Doctrine it is that whom She cannot convert She ought to destroy but that we have observed her to have been in all Ages drunk with the Blood of Saints All the commendations our Author bestows upon the King of England are not only either so many accusations of His Majesties insincerity in the Papal Faith or infallible indications that both the King pardon the expression and his Minister are Hypocritical Dissemblers but they are stabbing and twinging Satyr's against Mother Church and the Holy Father and against his Brittanick Majesties dear Brother and Ally the French King Nor can we be guilty either of Crime or Indecency in the worst we can say of the Church of Rome and the Most Christian King seeing we have in equivalent Terms a President for it both from so good a Catholick and so wise a Minister of a great Monarch as our honourable Author is And tho I begin to grow weary of conversing with so impertinent a man yet I am bound to wait upon him a little longer and while the Reader can reap no advantage by any thing he says to see whether it be not possible to lay hold of an occasion from his Ignorance and Folly to communicate things that may be more solid and instructive The sixth thing therefore whereof I accused him and for which I promised to call him to an account is his egregious ignorance in relation to Government Laws Customs and matters of Fact Mijn Heer Fagel tells us that the Test Laws being enacted by King and Parliament for the Security of the Reformed Religion and the Roman Catholicks receiving no prejudice by them but being meerly restrained from getting into a condition to subvert it therefore Their Highnesses could not consent to their Repeal And he further adds that there is no Kingdom Common-wealth or any constituted Body and Society in which there are not Laws made for the safety thereof which not only provide against all attempts that may disturb their peace but which prescribe such conditions as they judge necessary for the discerning who are qualified to bear Employments To which he again subjoins that there is a great difference between the conduct of these of the Reformed Religion towards Roman Catholicks which is moderate and only to prevent their getting into a capacity to do hurt and that of those of the Roman Catholick Religion towards the Reformed who not being satisfied to exclude them from places of Trust do both suppress the whole Exercise of their Religion and severely persecute all that profess it And he finally adds that both Reason and the Experience of the present as well as past Ages do shew that it is impossible for Roman Catholicks and those of the Reformed Religion when joyned together in places of Trust and publick Employment to maintain a good Correspondence live in mutual peace and to discharge their Offices quietly and to the publick Good Now from these several passages which carry their own evidence along with them our Author takes occasion both to vent his foolish and ridiculous Politicks and to proclaim his ignorance in History and of the most obvious matters of Fact However we shall have the patience to hearken to what he hath been pleased to say and shall examine it piece by piece as we go along And the first thing he does is to acquaint us with a mighty Mystery of State and which none but so great a Minister could have been able to have revealed namely that tho the King and Parliament upon the first Revolution with respect to Religion and the introducing and setting up the Reformed Religion thought fit to make those Laws which they judged necessary for its preservation yet that it does not follow that his present Majesty and a Parliament would be of the same mind but that they might enact Laws of a differing Nature from the former and re-establish Religion into the same State in which it was before the Reformed Doctrine and Worship was set up We are much obliged to our Author for this discovery though I must add that this it is to trust a Fool with secrets for he will be sure to be blabbing For tho he subjoin that he will not say that matters would be pushed so far yet he hath already told us enough to make us understand both what his own hopes are and what is designed by the Papal party if they could compass a Parliament of a Complexion and Temper to their mind But there are two fatal things which lye in their way One is that neither progressing nor closeting bribing nor threatning can
that as it does not weaken but in effect acknowledge what the Pensionary had said so by justifying what the Papists did to prevent the bringing in of the Protestant Religion which he stiles new he forewarns us what we are to expect they will be ready to do for the reintroducing the Papal Religion to which he gives the character of old Nor is it at all pertinent to the present case which of the Religions is the oldest or which is the newest but all contended for is that the method's of the one have been and still are more severe and sanguinary than the methods of those of the other And as we believe our Religion to be as ancient as Jesus Christ and his Apostles so no prescription of time for Popery's having been in possession can deprive that which has the Divine Authority to warrant it from a right of re-entrance There remains only one thing to be spoken unto of all that I undertook to discipline and correct our Author for and that is the signal ingratitude of the Papists and particularly of this Gentleman to their Highnesses for all that Liberty Favour and ease which Their Highnesses were willing to have had allowed unto them And that we may the more fully have an Idea of their unthankfulness we are to consider both the extent of that Liberty which Their Highnesses were contented to have had bestowed upon them and the obligations they would have come under for the rendring it hereafter inviolable And all this not only at a season when many of the Papists carry it so undutifully towards their Highnesses but at a time when they of the Reformed Religion are so unhumanely persecuted by several Popish Princes in other parts of the world It had not been an unreasonable desire that before the Papists had been so importunate to have all Penal Laws against them in Protestant Nations rescinded and taken away that they should have declared themselves and improved their interest for the Abrogation of all such Laws as are in force against those of the Reformed Religion in Popish Countries And if their Highnesses had insisted upon such a stipulation before They would have given their consent for the Repeal of the Penal Laws against Roman Catholicks in England it had been no more than what was agreeable to the Rules of Wisdom and Justice But their Highnesses not thinking it fit to suffer their own mercy to be restrained by reason of the want of Christian bowels in others took the first opportunity put into their hands of testifying their readiness to consent to the Repeal of all those Laws against Papists in England Scotland and Ireland by which they are made liable to fines or other punishments And that those which they can not agree to the rescinding of are only such by which the Reformed Religion is covered from the designs of the Roman Catholicks against it and by which they are restrained from getting into a condition to overturn it One would think that this should have been received as a most special favour and have obliged them to very hearty acknowledgments Especially when the Prince and Princess were willing to confirm both this and a Liberty for the private Exercise of their Religion with their Guaranty But in stead of any symptoms of gratitude there is nothing to be heard of from many of them or to be met with in our Answerer but what proclaims their dissatisfaction anger and revenge For besides all the ill returns we have already taken notice of in this wrathful and unthankful man he tells us that all which Their Highnesses declare themselves ready to consent unto amounts only to the abolishing some cruel Laws by which Romish Ecclesiasticks stood condemned to death for no other reason save their being Priests and in the vertue of which other persons were banished and deprived of their Estates meerly for being Roman Catholicks all which was a higher degree of barbarity than was ever practised among the most salvage Nations Now not to trouble my self about what kind of entertainment Romish Priests and Lay Papists have met with among those Nations which our Author stiles Barbarous tho it will be found infinitely more severe than any thing that was ever inflicted upon them in England Scotland or Ireland by reason of their Religion or upon the score of any Ecclesiastical Character I would only know of this modest and veracious Gentleman what he thinks of the barbarous and innumerable Cruelties that were perpetrated in all ages and places heretofore and which are at this day committed upon peaceable and sincere Christians for no other crime but that they could not and to this day cannot believe as the Church of Rome doth nor continue in Communion with so idolatrous and villanous a Society Whatsoever measure of severity hath been any where exercised towards Papists it was but according to the President themselves had set in their dealing with them whom they stile Hereticks and in which the Copy comes vastly below the Original But then that which wholly alters the case is that whereas the Papists persecute and destroy Christians meerly upon the account of Religion there were never any severe much less Sanguinary Laws enacted against them save by reason of their Crimes against the State and for being Enemies and Traitors to the Government Popery was never persecuted in England as it is a false and erroneous Belief but as it binds men to the owning of a forraign usurped and unlawful Jurisdiction 'T is neither for their believing Transubstantiation nor for their Worshipping Images that Papists are adjudged to penalties or death but because they adhere to a forreign Enemy and are treacherous to their Countrey Could they have been but good Subjects their being bad Christians would never have prejudiced them And indeed while they continue to hold that the Pope can depose Protestant Soveraigns and absolve Subjects from their Allegiance to them and that it is lawful to cut the Throats of all whom they stile Hereticks and that all Laws made for our security are null and void as being enacted by an incompetent and unlawful Authority it would seem according to the exact measures of wisdom and reason that all lenity and favour towards them were not only a supererogating in Mercy but an indiscretion in Policy But then to let such into the Government were plainly to betray the State and wilfully to abandon both it and our selves to be destroyed and ruined Nor is there so much danger in advancing Robbers and Newgate Fellons to Employments as there would be in preferring Papists especially if Jesuiced and Bigotted into Civil Offices in a Reformed Kingdom And therefore seeing they will not thankfully accept and quietly acquiesce in what is offered and that rather from an exurberancy of Generosity and Mercy than from Maxims of prudence and obligations arising from duty it is best to leave them to steer their own course and to pursue those Methods which will infallibly issue in
enacted for our security which to every ones knowledge are so palpably false that we have all the ground that may be both to question and suspect his sincerity and to conclude that his Masters do not purpose to confine themselves within the bounds that he is pleased to chalk out for them and which he undertakes they shall be contented with for their allotment For what can be remoter from Truth than that the Test Laws were designed as a preamble to the Bill of Exclusion as he phrases it Letter first and that they were contrived to exclude the Duke of York from the Crown as he expresseth it p. 15. of his Good Advice c. when it is most certain that as the Test in 73. was made long before there were or could be any thoughts of it and was enacted by a Parliament against whose Loyalty there can be no exception so there was a clause in the last Test Act by which it was provided that he should not be obliged to take it Again what can be more repugnant to experience than that the King onely desires ease for those of his Religion Good Adv. p. 44. and that the Papists desire no more than a Toleration and are willing upon those Terms to make a perpetual peace with the Church of England Good Advice p. 17. For do we not daily see Protestants turned out of all Places of Trust Authority and Command and Papists advanced into all Offices Military and Civil Could the King have been contented with a Non-execution of the Laws against those of his Communion and could they have been satisfied with such an Indulgence and have modestly improved it 'T is not improbable but that such a behaviour would have so far prevailed upon the ingenuity and good nature of the generality of Protestants that without needing to have been importuned they would have repealed all the Penal Laws against Roman Catholicks But the methods which have been pursued by his Majesty and them shews both that they aim at no less than the Domination and that we must be very willing to be deceived if we either credit Mr. Pen or suffer our selves to be influenced by him after his obtruding upon us for truths matters which our very senses inable us to refute It may justly make us question his sincerity and beget a suspition in all thinking people of the sinistrous design these Papers are adapted unto when we find him endeavouring to cajole the Nation to an abrogation of the Laws by which our Religion and Safety are secured by telling us That the King's word is enough for us to rely upon if they were gone Good Advice p. 49. and that he could easily pack a Parliament for Repealing them if he did not seek a more lasting and more agreeable security to his Friends Letter third p. 12. and that if they were abolished 't is below the Glory of our King to use ways so unlike the rest of his open and generous principles as to endeavour to get a Parliament afterwards returned that is not duly chosen Letter second p. 15. and that he is a Prince of that Honour Conscience and generoas nature as not by invading the Rights of the Church of England to become guilty of an injustice and irreligion he hath so often so solemnly and earnestly spoken against Letter second p. 11. He must needs take us to be strangely unacquainted with the whole Tenor of the King's Actings in England as well as in Scotland and Ireland and to be persons of very weak understandings and of an easie belief if he think we are to be imposed upon and decoy'd by such Topicks as these to absolish the Tests or that after what we have seen and felt contradictory to those Panegyricks and inconsistent with those beautiful and lofty Characters fastned upon his Majesty we should believe Mr. Pen to mean nothing but well and honestly towards the Protestant Interest in what he so earnestly solliciteth the Church of England and the Dissenters in the forementioned Papers to concurr and consent unto I do acknowledge that what he hath said about Liberty due to men in matters of meer Religion and by way of rebuke unto and reflection upon the Wisdom and Justice of those that either are or have been for persecution is very strong and convincing but I must withall add that it is all at this time very needless and impertinent For the Church of England is so sensible of the Iniquity as well as folly of that Method that there is no ground to suspect She will ever be guilty of it for the future They whom no Arguments could heretofore convert the Court whose Tools they were in that mischievous and Unchristian work and by whom they were instigated to all the severities which they are now blamed for by objecting it to them as their Reproach and Disgrace and by seeking to improve the resentments of those who had suffered by Penal Laws to become an united party with the Papists for their subversion hath brought them at once to be asham'd of what they did and to Resolutions of promoting all Christian Liberty for the time to come And should there be any peevish and ill-natur'd Ecclesiasticks who upon a turn of Affairs would be ready to reassume their former principles and pursue their wonted course we may be secure against all fear of their being successful in it not only by finding the Majority as well as the more learned both of the dignified and inferior Clergy unchangeably fixed and determined against it but by having the whole Nobility and Gentry and those Noble Princes whose right it will be next to ascend the Throne fully possessed with all the generous and Christian purposes we can desire of making provision for Liberty of Conscience by a Law Nor can I forbear to subjoyn how surprizing it ought to be to all Protestants that while Mr. Pen expresseth so much charity for the Papists he entertaineth so little for the Church of England He would perswade us that if the Penal and Test Laws were abrogated the Papists would be so far afterward from seeking to shake the Constitution of the Church of England or from breaking in upon the Liberty that is now vouchsafed unto Dissenters or from endeavouring to make their Religion National that they would not onely be contented with a bare Toleration but that upon their enjoyment of ease by Law they would turn good Countrymen and come in to the Interest of the Kingdom Letter first Whereas at the same time he would have us believe that all the Protestations of those in the Communion of the Church of England for exercising Moderation in time to come are but the Language of their fear that their promises are not to be trusted Good Advice p. 54. and that the Dissenters deserve to be begged for Fools should they be satisfied with any less assurance than the abolition of the Penal and Test Laws ibid. p. 55. 'T is enough not onely to excite
and Historical as may serve to place it in the brightest Light and fullest Evidence that a matter future and yet to come which is only the object of our prospect and dread and not of our feeling and experience is capable of It ought to be of weight upon the minds of all English Protestants that the King of Great Britain is not only an open and avow'd Papist but as most Apostates use to be a fiery Bigot in the Romish Religion and who as the Leige Letter from a Jesuit to a Brother of the Order tells us is resolved either to Convert England to Popery or to dye a Martyr Nor were the Jewish Zealots of whose rageful Transports Josephus gives us so ample an Account nor the Dervises among the Turks and Indians of whose mad Attempts so many Histories make mention more brutal in their Fanatical Heats than a Popish Bigot useth to be when favored with Advantages of exerting his Animosity against those who differ from him if he be not carefully watched against and restrained Beside the innumerable Instances of the Tragical Effects of Romish Bigottry that are to be met with in Books of all kinds we need go no farther for an Evidence of it than to consult the Life of Dominick the great Instigator and Promoter of the Massacre of the Waldenses and the Founder of that Order which hath the Management of the Bloody Inquisition together with the Life of Henry the Third of France who contrary to the Advice of Maximilian the Emperor and the repeated Intreaties of the wisest of his own Counsellors the Chancellor de l' Hospital and the President de Thou not only revived the War and Persecution against his Reformed Subjects after he had seen what Judgments the like Proceedings had derived upon his Predecessors and how prejudicial they had proved to the Strength Glory and Interest of his Crown and Kingdom but he entred into a League with those that fought to depress abdicate and depose him and became the Head of a Faction for the destroying that part of his Subjects upon whom alone he could rely for the defence of his Person and support of his Dignity Nor were the Furies of the Duke de Alva heretofore or the present Barbarities of Louis the Fourteenth so much the Effects of their haughty and furious Tempers as of their Bigottry in their inhuman and sanguinary Religion That the King of England is second to none in a blind and rageful Popish Zeal his Behaviour both while a Subject and since he arrived at the Crown doth not only place it beyond the limits of a bare Suspition but affords us such Evidences of it as that none in consistency with Principles of Wisdom and Discretion can either question or contradict it To what else can we ascribe it but to an excessive Bigottry That when the Frigot wherein he was Sailing to Scotland anno 1682. struck upon the Sands and was ready to sink he should prefer the Lives of one or two pitiful Priests to those of Men of the greatest Quality and receive those Mushroons into the Boat in which himself escaped while at the same time he refused to admit not only his own Brother-in-Law but divers Noblemen of the Supremest Rank and Character to the benefit of the same means of Deliverance and suffered them to perish though they had undertaken that Voyage out of pure respect to his Person and to put an Honor upon him at a Season when he wanted not Enemies Nor can it proceed from any thing but a violent and furious Bigottry that he should not only disoblige and disgust the two Universities of whose Zeal to his Service he hath receiv'd so many seasonable and effectual Testimonies but to the Violation both of the Laws of God and the Kingdom offer force to their Consciences as well as to their Rights and Franchises and all this in favor of Father Francis whom he would illegally thrust into a Fellowship in Cambridge and of Mr. Farmer whom he would arbitrarily obtrude into the Headship of a College in Oxford who as they are too despicable to be owned and stood for in Competition against two famous Universities whose greatest Crime hath been an Excess of Zeal for his Person and Interest when he was Duke of York and a measure of Loyalty and Obedience unto him since he came to the Crown beyond what either the Rules of Christianity or the Laws of the Kingdom exact from them so he hath ways enough of expressing Kindness and Bounty to those two little contemptible Creatures and that in Methods as beneficial to them as the Places into which he would thrust them can be supposed to amount unto and I am sure with less Scandal to himself and less Offence to all Protestants as well as without offering Injury to the Rights of the University or of compelling those learned grave and venerable Men to perjure themselves and act against their Duties and Consciences The late Proceedings towards Dr. Burnet are not only contrary to all the Measures of Justice Law and Honor but argue a strange and furious Bigottry in His Majesty for Popery there being nothing else into which a Man can resolve the whole Tenor of his present Actings against Him seeing setting aside the Doctor 's being a Protestant and a Minister of the Church of England and his having vindicated the Reformation in England from the Calumnies and Slanders wherewith it was aspersed by Sanders and others of the Roman Communion and the approving himself in some other Writings worthy of the Character of a Reformed Divine and of that esteem which the World entertains of him for Knowledge in History and all other parts of good Learning there hath nothing occurred in the whole Tenor and Trace of his Life but what instead of Rebuke and Censure hath merited Acknowledgments and the Retributions of Favor and Preferment from the Court. Whosoever considers his constant Preaching up Passive Obedience to such a Degree and Height as he hath done may very well be surprised at the whole Method of their present Actings towards him and at the same time that they find cause to justifie the Righteousness of God in making them the Instruments of his Persecution whom in so many ways he had sought to oblige they may justly conclude that none save a Bigotted Papist could be the Author of so insuitable as well as illegal and unrighteous Returns For as to all whereof he is accused in the Criminal Letters against him bearing date the 19th of April 1687. I my self am both able to assert his Innocence and dare assure the World that none of the Persons whom he is charged to have conspired with against the King would have been so far void of Discretion knowing his Principles as to have transacted with him in Matters of that kind but whether his Letters since that to the Earl of Middletoune with the Paper inclosed in one of them have administred any Legal Ground for their Second Citation
were prepared for in case it had succeeded and the foreign aid they had been solliciting and were promised and all for the extirpation of English Hereticks are things so modern and which we have had so many times related to us by our Fathers that it is enough barely to intimate them The Irish Massacre in which above 200000 were murder'd in cold blood and to which there was no provocation but that of hatred to our Religion and furious zeal to extirpate Hereticks ought at this time to be more particularly reflected upon as that which gives us a true scheme of the manner of the Church of Rome's converting Protestant Kingdoms and being the Copy they have a mind to write after and that in such Characters and lines of blood as may be sure to answer the Original At the season when they both entred upon and executed that hellish conjuration they were in a quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the private exercise of their Religion yea had many publick meeting-places thro the means of the Queen and many great friends which they had at Court and were neither disturbed for not coming to Church nor suffered any severities upon the account of their Profession but that would not satisfie nor will any thing else unless they may be allowed to cut the throats or make bonefires of all that will not join with them in a blind obedience to the Sea of Rome and of worshipping S. Patrick The little harsh usages which the Papists at any time met with there or in England they derived them upon themselves by their Crimes against the State and for their Conspiracies against our Princes and their Protestant Subjects For till the Pope had taken upon him to depose Queen Elizabeth and absolve her Subjects from their Allegiance and till the Papists had so far approved that Act of his Holiness as to raise Rebellions at home and enter into treasonable confederacies abroad there were no Laws that could be stiled severe enacted in England against Papists and the making of them was the result of necessity in order to preserve our selves and not from an inclination to hurt any for matters of mere Religion Such hath always been the moderation of our Rulers and so powerful are the incitements to lenity which the generality of Protestants through the influence and impression of their Religion especially they of a more generous education have been under towards those of the Roman Communion that nothing but their unwearied restlesness to disturb the Government and destroy Protestants hath been the cause either of enacting those Laws against them that are stiled rigorous or of their having been at any time put into execution And notwithstanding that some such Laws were enacted as might appear to savour of severity yet could they have but submitted to have dwelt peaceably in the Land they would have found that their mere belief and the private practice of their Worship would not have much prejudiced or endangered them and that tho the Laws had been continued unrepealed yet it was only as a Hedge about us for our protection and as Bonds of obligation upon them to their good behaviour To which may be added that more Protestants have suffered in one year by the Laws made against Dissenters and to the utmost height of the penalties which the violation of them imported and that by the instigation of Papists and their influence over the late King and his present Majesty than there have Papists from the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign to this very day tho there was a difference in the punishments they underwent However we may from their many and repeated attempts against us while we had Princes that both would and could chasten their insolencies and inflict upon them what the Law made them obnoxious unto for their outrages gather and conclude what we are now to expect upon their having obtained a King imbu'd with all the persecuting and bloody principles of Popery and perfectly baptised into all the Doctrines of the Councils of Lateran and Constance And it may strengthen our faith as well as increase our fear of what is purposed against and impends over us in that they cannot but think that the suffering our Religion to remain in a condition to be at any time hereafter the Religion of the State and of the universality of the People may not only prove a means of retrieving Protestancy in France and of assisting to revenge the barbarities perpetrated there upon a great and innocent people but may leave the Roman Catholicks in England exposed to the resentment of the Kingdom for what they have so foolishly and impudently acted both against our Civil Rights and Established Religion since James II. came to the Crown and may also upon the Government 's falling into good hands and Magistrates coming to understand their true Interest which is for an English Prince to make himself the Head of the Protestant cause and to espouse their quarrel in all places give such a Revolution in Europe as will not only check the present Career of Rome but cause them repent the methods in which they have been engaged These things we may be sure the Papists are aware of and that having proceeded so far they have nothing left for their security from punishments because of crimes committed but to put us out of all capacity of doing our selves Right and them Justice and he must be dull who does not know into what that must necessarily hurry them It being then as evident as a matter of this nature is capable of what we are to expect and dread from the King both as to our Religion and Laws we may do more than presume that the late Declaration for liberty of Conscience and the Proclamation for a Toleration are not intended and designed for the benefit and advantage of the Reformed Religion and that whatsoever motives have influenced to the granting and emitting of them they do not in the least flow or proceed from any kindness and good will to Protestant Dissenters And though many of those weak and easie People may flatter themselves with a belief of an interest in the Kings favour and suffer others to delude them into a persuasion of his bearing a gracious respect towards them yet it is certain that they are People in the world whom he most hates and who when things are ripe for it and that he hath abused their credulity into a serving his Ends as far as they can be prevailed upon and as long as the present Juggle can be of any advantage for promoting the Papal Cause will be sure not only to have an equal share in his displeasure with their Brethren of the Church of England but will be made to drink deepest in the cup of fury and wrath that is mingling and preparing for all Protestants No provocation from their present behaviour tho it is such as might warm a person of very cool temper much less offences of another complexion
were represented by some of the Dissenters not only as favorers of Popery but as endeavouring to hale it in upon us by all the methods and ways that lay within their circle and yet now the whole defence of the Reformed Religion must be entirely devolved into their hands and when all the sluces are pulled up that had been made to hinder Popery from overflowing the Nation they must be left alone to stem the Inundation and prevent the Deluge They among the Fanaticks that boasted to be the most avowed and irreconcileable Enemies of the Church of Rome are not only become altogether silent when they see the Kingdom pester'd with a swarm of busie and seducing Emissaries but are both turned Advocates for that Arbitrary Paper whereby we are surrendred as a Prey unto them and do make it their business to detract from the reputation and discourage the Labours of the National Ministers who with a zeal becoming their Office and a Learning which deserves to be admired have set themselves in opposition to that croaking fry and have done enough by their excellent and unimitable Writings to save People from being deluded or perverted if either unanswerable confutations of Popery or demonstrative defences of the Articles and Doctrines of the Reformed Religion can have any efficacy upon the minds of Men. Among other fulsom Flatteries adorning a Speech made to his Majesty by an Addressing Dissenter I find this hypocritical and shameful Adulation namely that if there sholud remain any seeds of Disloyalty in any of his Subjects the transcendent goodness exerted in his Declaration would mortifie and kill them To which he might have added with more truth that the same transcendent goodness had almost destroyed all the seeds of their honesty and mortified their care and concernment for the Interest of Jesus Christ and for the Reformed Religion Their old strain of zealous Preaching against the Idolatry of Rome and concerning the coming out of Babylon my People are grown out of fashion with them in England and are only reserved and laid by to recommend them to the kindness and acceptation of Foreign Protestants when their occasions and conveniencies draw them over to Amsterdam Whoever comes into their Assemblies would think for any thing that he there hears delivered from their Pulpits that She which was the Whore of Babylon a few years ago were now become a Chast Spouse and that what were heretofore the damnable Doctrines of Popery were of late turned Innocent and Harmless Opinions The King's Declaration would seem to have brought some of them to a melius inquirendum and as they are already arrived to believe a Roman Catholick the best King that they may in a little time come to esteem Papists for the best Christians The keeping back nothing that is profitable to save such as hear them and the declaring the whole Counsel of God that are the terms upon which they received their Commission from Jesus Christ and wherein they have Paul's practice and example for a pattern would seem to be things under the Power of the Royal Prerogative and that the King may supercede them by the same Authority by which he dispenses with the Penal Statutes Which as it is very agreeable unto and imported in his Majesty's Claim of being obeyed without reserve so the owning this Absolute power with that annex of challenged obedience does acquit them from all obligations to the Laws of Christ when they are found to interfer with what is required by the King But whether God's Power or the King 's be superior and which of the two can cassate the others Laws and whose wrath is most terrible the Judgment day will be able and sure to instruct them if all means in this World prove insufficient for it The Addressers know upon what conditions they hold their Liberty and they have not only observed how several of the National Clergy have been treated for preaching against Popery but they have heard how divers of the Reformed Ministers in France before the general Suppression were dealt with for speaking against their Monarch's Religion and therefore they must be pardoned if they carry so as not to provoke his Majesty tho in the mean time through their Silence they both betray the Cause of their Lord and Master and are unfaithful to the Souls of those of whom they have taken upon them the Spiritual guidance As for the Papers themselves that are stiled by the name of Addresses I shall not meddle with them being as to the greatest part of them fitter to be exposed and ridicul'd either for their dullness and pedantry or for the Adulation and Sycophancy with which they are fulsomly stuft than to deserve any serious consideration or to merit Reflections that may prove instrumentive to Mankind Only as that Address wherein his Majesty is thanked for his restoring God to his Empire over Conscience deserveth a rebuke for its Blasphemy so that other which commends him for promising to force the Parliament to ratifie his Declaration tho by the way all he says is that he does not doubt of their concurrence which yet his ill success upon the Closetting of so many Members and his since Dissolving that Parliament shews that there was some cause for the doubting of it I say that other Address merits a severe Censure for its insolency against the legislative Authority And the Authors of it ought to be punished for their crime committed against the Liberty and Freedom of the two Houses and for encouraging the King to invade and subvert their most essential and fundamental Privileges and without which they can neither be a Council Judicature nor Lawgivers After all I hope the Nation will be so ingenuous as not to impute the miscarriages of some of the Nonconformists to the whole Party much less to ascribe them to the Principles of Dissenters For as the points wherein they differ from the Church of England are purely of another nature and which have no relation to Politicks so the influence that they are adapted to have upon men as members of Civil Societies is to make them in a special manner regardful of the Rights and Franchises of the Community But if some neither understand the tendency of their own Principles nor are true and faithful unto them these things are the personal faults of those men and are to be attributed to their ignorance or to their dishonesty nor are their Carriages to be counted the effects of their religious Tenets much less are others of the Party to be involved under the reproach and guilt of their imprudent and ill conduct Which there is the more cause to acknowledge because tho the Church of England has all the reason of the world to decline Addressing in that all her legal Foundation as well as Security is shaken by the Declaration yet there are some of her Dignitaries and Clergy as well as divers of the Members of her Communion who upon motives of Ambition Covetousness
in open Arms or with Arms in their Houses or about their Persons or in any Office or Imployment Civil or Military upon any Pretence whatsoever contrary to the known Laws of the Land shall be treated by Us and our Forces not as Soldiers and Gentlemen but as Robbers Free-Booters and Banditti they shall be incapable of Quarter and intirely delivered up to the Discretion of our Soldiers And We do further declare that all Persons who shall be found any ways aiding and assisting to them or shall march under their Command or shall joyn with or submit to them in the Discharge or Execution of their Illegal Commissions or Authority shall be looked upon as Partakers of their Crimes Enemies to the Laws and to their Country And whereas we are certainly informed that great Numbers of armed Papists have of late resorted to London and Westminster and parts adjacent where they remain as we have reason to suspect not so much for their own Security as out of a wicked and barbarous Design to make some desperate Attempt upon the said Cities and their Inhabitants by Fire or a sudden Massacre or both or else to be the more ready to joyn themselves to a Body of French Troops designed if it be possible to land in England procured of the French King by the Interest and Power of the Jesuits in Pursuance of the Engagements which at the Instigation of that pestilent Society his most Christian Majesty with one of his Neighbouring Princes of the same Communion has entred into for the utter Extirpation of the Protestant Religion out of Europe Tho we hope we have taken such effectual care to prevent the one and secure the other that by God's Assistance we cannot doubt but we shall defeat all their wicked Enterprises and Designs We cannot however forbear out of the great and tender Concern We have to preserve the People of England and particularly those great and populous Cities from the cruel Rage and bloody Revenge of the Papists to Require and expect from all the Lord-Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace Lord-Mayors Mayors Sheriffs and all other Magistrates and Officers Civil and Military of all Counties Cities and Towns of England especially of the County of Middlesex and Cities of London and Westminster and parts adjacent that they do immediately disarm and secure as by Law they may and ought within their respective Counties Cities and Jurisdictions all Papists whatsoever as Persons at all times but now especially most dangerous to the Peace and Safety of the Government that so not only all Power of doing mischief may be taken from them but that the Laws which are the greatest and best Security may resume their Force and be strictly Executed And We do hereby likewise Declare that We will Protect and Defend all those who shall not be afraid to do their Duty in Obedience to these Laws And that for those Magistrates and others of what condition soever they be who shall refuse to assist Us and in Obedience to the Laws to Execute vigorously what we have required of them and suffer themselves at this Juncture to be cajoled or terrified out of ther Duty We will esteem them the most Criminal and Infamous of all Men Betrayers of their Religion the Laws and their Native Country and shall not fail to treat them accordingly resolving to expect and require at their hands the Life of every single Protestant that shall perish and every House that shall be burnt or destroyed by their Treachery and Cowardise William Henry Prince of Orange Given under our Hand and Seal at our Head-quarters at Sherburn Castle the 28th day of November 1688. By his Highness special Command C. HUYGENS. The following Paper was Published by Mr. Samuel Johnson in the Year 1686. for which he was Sentenc'd by the Court of King's Bench Sir Edward Herbert being Lord Chief Justice to stand three times on the Pillory and to be whipp'd from Newgate to Tyburn Which barbarous Sentence was Executed An Humble and Hearty Address to all the English Protestants in this present Army Gentlemen NExt to the Duty which we owe to God which ought to be the principal Care of Men of your Profession especially because you carry your Lives in your Hands and often look Death in the Face The second Thing that deserves your Consideration is The service of your Native Country wherein you drew your first Breath and breathed a free English Air. Now I would desire you to consider how well you comply with these two main Points by engaging in this present Service Is it in the Name of God and for his Service that you have joyned your selves with Papists who will indeed fight for the Mass-book but burn the Bible and who seek to Extirpate the Protestant Religion with Your Swords because they cannot do it with their Own And will you be Aiding and Assisting to set up Mass-houses to Erect that Popish Kingdom of Darkness and Desolation amongst us and to train up all our Children in Popery How can you do these Things and yet call your selves Protestants And then what Service can be done your Country by being under the Command of French and Irish Papists and by bringing the Nation under a Foreign Yoke Will you help them to make forcible Entry into the Houses of your Country-men under the Name of Quartering directly contrary to Magna Charta and the Petition of Right Will you be Aiding and Assisting to all the Murders and Outrages which they shall commit by their void Commissions Which were declared Illegal and sufficiently blasted by both Houses of Parliament if there had been any need of it for it was very well known before That a Papist cannot have a Commission but by the Law is utterly Disabled and Disarmed Will you exchange your Birth-right of English Laws and Liberties for Martial or Club-law and help to destroy all others only to be eaten last your selves If I know you well as you are English Men you hate and scorn these Things And therefore be not unequally yoaked with Idolatrous and Bloody Papists Be Valiant for the Truth and shew your selves Men. The same Considerations are likewise humbly offered to all the English Seamen who have been the Bulwark of this Nation against Popery and Slavery ever since Eighty Eight Several Reasons for the Establishment of a standing Army and Dissolving the Militia By Mr. S. Johnson 1. BEcause the Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and the whole Militia that is to say the Lords Gentlemen and Free-holders of England are not fit to be trusted with their own Laws Lives Liberties and Estates and therefore ought to have Guardians and Keepers assigned to them 2. Because Mercenary Soldiers who fight for twelve Pence a Day will fight better as having more to lose than either the Nobility or Gentry 3. Because there are no Irish Papists in the Militia who are certainly the best Soldiers in the World for they have slain Men Women and Children
are forced none will abide you And said further That there was a Man beyond sea had prophesied That in sixty six if the King did not settle the Romish Religion in England he would be banished out of the Kingdom and all his Posterity And Collins further said That he being lately turned a Roman Catholick he would not be a Protestant for all the World He wished Graunger again in the hearing of his Wife which he affirmed to the Committee to turn his Religion for all the said Prophesie would come to pass in Sixty six Robert Holloway of Darking aforesaid informed That one Stephen Griffin a Papist said to him That all the bloud that had been shed in the late civil War was nothing to that which would be shed this year in England Holloway demanded a reason for these words in regard the Kingdom was in peace and no likelihood of trouble and said Do you Papists intend to rise and cut our throats when we are asleep Griffin answered That 's no matter if you live you shall see it Ferdinand de Massido a Portuguese and some Years since a Romish Priest but turning Protestant Informed That one Father Taff a Jesuite did the last year tell him at Paris That if all England did not return to the Church of Rome they should all be destroyed the next Year Mr. Samuel Cottman of the Middle-Temple Barister Informed That about two Years since one Mr. Jeviston a Popish Priest and called by the Name of Father Garret did perswade him to turn Papist and he should want neither Profit nor Preferment Mr. Cottman objected that he intended to practise the Law which he could not do if he turned Papist because he must take the Oath of Supremacy at his being called to the Bar and if he were a Papist he must not take it Mr. Jeviston replied Why not take the Oath It is an unlawful Oath and void ipso facto And after some pause said further First take the Oath and then I will convert you He said further The King will not own ' himself to be Head of the Church And said further You in England that set up the Dutch to destroy our Religion shall find that they shall be the Men to PULL DOWN YOURS Mr. Stanley an Officer to the Duke of Ormond in Ireland Informed That coming out of Ireland with one Oriel who owned himself of the Order of the Jesuites and commissioned from the Pope to be Lord Primate of Ireland and Archbishop of Armah and falling into some Discourse with him he told him That there had been a Difference between him and some other of the Jesuites in Ireland and that part of the Occasion was that one Father Walsh and some other of the Jesuites there did dispense with the Papists in Ireland to take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy by virtue of a standing Commission from the Pope which he had to do it during this King's Life and Oriel thought they ought not to do it by virtue of the standing Commission but should take a new Commission from the Pope every Year to do it And likewise That he brought eight Boys out of Ireland whom he intended to carry to Flanders to breed up in some of the Colledges there And at his taking Shipping to go for Flanders he shaked his Foot towards England terming it Egypt and said He would not return into England till he came with 50 thousand Men at his heels A French Merchant being a Papist living in St. Michael's Lane London writes in a Letter to his Friend That a great number of Men and Arms were ready here if those he wrote to were ready there He being upon the Intercepting of this Letter searched forty Fire-locks were found in his House ready loaden which were carried to Fishmongers-Hall a Month or more before the Fire and he committed to Prison but since released A Poor Woman retaining to one Belson's House a Papist about Darking in Surrey was follicited that she and her husband would turn Roman Catholicks which if they did voluntarily Now they would be accepted of but if they staid a little longer they would be forced whether they would or no and then they would not be esteemed This was deposed before Sir Adam Brown a Member of Parliament A Complaint being made against a Sugar-Baker at Fox-hall his House was searched by Lieutenant Collonel Luntly who found there several Guns with such Locks as no English-man who was at the taking of them could discharge together with Brass Blunderbusses and Fire-works of a furious and burning nature Trial being made of a small part of them the Materials were discerned to be Sulphur Aquavitae and Gun-powder whatever else In a Letter to Sir John Frederick and Mr. Nathanail Heron from Horsham in Sussex the 8th of September 1666. Subscibed Henry Chowne Wherein is mentioned that the said Henry Chowne had thoughts to come to London that week but that they were in Distraction there concerning the Papists fearing they would shew themselves all that day And that he had been to search a Papist's House within six miles of that place He with another Justice of Peace met the Gentleman's Brother who is a Priest going to London whom they searched and found a Letter about him which he had received that Morning from his Sister twenty miles off from him wherein is expressed That a great Business is in hand not to be committed to Paper as the times be Your Committee have thought fit to give no Opinion upon these Informations but leave the matter of Fact to your Judgments I am commanded to tell you That your Committee have several other things of this nature under their Inquiry AS a further Instance of the audacious and insolent Behaviour of these Popish Recusants take the following Copy of Verses made and then scattered abroad by some of their Party in Westminster-Hall and several other places about the City and elsewhere in the Kingdom COvre la feu ye Hugonots That have so branded us with Plots And henceforth no more Bonfires make Till ye arrive the Stygian Lakeâ— For down ye must ye Hereticks For all your hopes in sixty six The hand against you is so steady Your Babylon is faln already And if you will avoid that hap Return into your Mothers lap The Devil a Mercy is for those That Holy Mother-Church oppose Let not your Clergy you betray Great Eyes are ope and see the way Return in time if you will save Your Souls your Lives or ought you have And if you live till sixty seven Confess you had fair Warning given Then see in time or ay be blind Short time will shew you what 's behind Dated the 5th Day of November in the Year 1666. and the First Year of the Restoration of the Church of Rome in England NOt long after the Burning of London Mr. Brook Bridges a young gentleman of the Temple as he was going to attend Divine Service in the Temple-Church in a Pew there