and Gentry there cannot enjoy their Royalties their Shreivaldoms and their Stewardaries which they and their Ancestors have possessed for several Hundreds of years but that now they are enjoyned by the Lords of the Council to make deputations of their Authorities to such as are their known Enemies Can we expect to enjoy our Magna Charta long under the same Persons and Administration of affairs If the Council Table there can imprison any Noble-man or Gentleman for several years without bringing him to Tryal or giving the least reason for what they do can we expect the same men will preserve the Liberty of the Subject here I will acknowledge I am not well vers'd in the particular Laws of Scotland but this I do know that all the Northern Countreys have by their Laws an undoubted and inviolable Right to their Liberties and Properties yet Scotland hath outdone all the Eastern and Southern Countreys in having their Lives Liberties and Estates subjected to the Arbitrary will and pleasure of them that Govern They have lately plundered and harassed the Richest and Wealthiest Countries of that Kingdom and brought down the Barbarous Highlanders to devour them and all this without a most colourable pretence to do it Nor can there be found a reason of State for what they have done but that those wicked Ministers designed to procure a Rebellion at any rate which as they managed was only prevented by the miraculous hand of God or otherwise all the Papists in England would have been armed and the fairest opportunity given in the just time for the execution of that wicked and bloody design the Papists had and it is not possible for any man that duly considers it to think other but that those Ministers that acted that were as guilty of the Plot as any of the Lords that are in question for it My Lords I am forced to speak this the plainer because till the pressure be fully and clearly taken off from Scotland 't is not possible for me or any thinking man to believe that good is meant us here We must still be upon our guard apprehending that the Principle is not changed at Court and that these men that are still in place and Authority have that influence upon the Mind of our excellent Prince that he is not nor cannot be that to us that his own Nature and Goodness would incline him to I know your Lordships can order nothing in this but there are those that hear me can put a perfect cure to it until that be done the Scotch Weed is like Death in the Pot. Mers in Olla But there is something too now I consider that most immediately concerns us their Act of Twenty two Thousand men to be ready to invade us upon all occasions This I hear that the Lords of the Council there have treated as they do all other Laws and expounded it into a Standing Army of six thousand men I am sure we have reason and right to beseech the King that that Act may be better considered in the next Parliament there I shall say no more for Scotland at this time I am afraid your Lordships will think I have said too much having no concern there But if a French Noble-man should come to dwell in my House and Family I should think it concerned me to ask what he did in France for if he were there a Felon a Rogue a Plunderer I should desire him to live else-where and I hope your Lordships will do the same thing for the Nation if you find the same cause My Lords give me leave to speak two or three words concerning our other Sister Ireland thither I hear is sent Douglas's Regiment to secure us against the French Besides I am credibly informed that the Papists have their Arms restored and the Protestants are not many of them yet recovered from being the suspected Party the Sea-Towns as well as the Inland are full of Papists that Kingdom cannot long continue in the English hands if some better care be not taken of it This is in your power and there is nothing there but is under your Laws therefore I beg that this Kingdom at least may be taken in consideration together with the State of England for I am sure there can be no safety here if these doors be not shut up and made sure Whether any such Harangue was made in that August assembly or not I cannot say but I am sure that all the Seditious and Treasonable Pamphlets that have been since Printed are but flourishes upon this Text and an extract of those that went before them the very model of the last Rebellion and probably the design of an other But England and Ireland are not as yet ripe for so generous an undertaking But to shew you how matters past in Scotland I will Transcribe the very words of my Author and leave the credit of them with him By the very next post after this Speech was said to have been spoken The Spirit of Popery speaking in the Phanatical Protestants pag. 73. London 1680. fol. Forty written Coppies of it were sent from London to Edenbrough and the Fanaticks grew so insolent and so daring upon it that several Loyal Gentlemen wrote up accounts to what height of Insolences this Speech had blown up the Enemies of the Church and the Monarchy and that they had just reasons to fear that very dangerous attempts if not a down-right Rebellion would speedily ensue thereupon but those reports found not too much credit at London where the world was made to believe by men whose interest it was that they should not be credited that they were but the inventions of the Duke of Lauderdale for whose advantage in that conjucture it was that they should be believed My Author goes on that he is confident such is his charity he that made it The Effects would not have done so had he known the true State of Scotland which few English men do or foreseen the evil effects which it immediately had in encouraging the Covenanteers to Assassinate Massacre and Rebel For now they begin to look and speak big in Edenbrough and many of them were heard and seen upon the Crown of the Causway who had sneeked about in darkness before And as for the disaffected parts of the Country they now display'd the Banners of Jesus Christ as they Blasphemously call'd their colours at their Conventicles every where and their Preachers now told them that the time of their deliverance and of Gods taking Vengeance upon his Enemies was now at hand only they must repent and be strong and of a great courage and fight the Battles of the Lord. They also threatned in all places such as they thought were seriously active against them talking of great Changes and Revolutions in England and in Publick Places dropt Lists of the Names of those men whom they had a mind should fall by Heroical Hands And in the first place naming Dr. Sharp the Archbishop of
cannot possibly better represent this than in the Words of Camden The State of England was most miserable at that time as being involved in a War with Scotland on the one side and France on the other oppressed with the Debts which Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth had Contracted the Exchequer was Exhausted Calis and the County of Oyen and in them a great Magazine were lost to the dishonour of the English Name and the People were divided in their Opinions concerning Religion The Queen had no Potent Friends nor was fortified with the * Cognatione Alliance or Kindred of any Foreign Princes The Trade of England must of necessity be very small when the Nation was thus Near ruine But when the Queen had once setled the business of Religion and afterwards had taken care to preserve it from Foreign Violence by Repairing her Navy Royal so that it was far Superiour to any other which gave her Reputation at home and Fame abroad and also from the Attempts of the Papists and Dissenters by severe Laws constantly put in Execution and had thereby Won the Affections of her People and stilled their Fears They being secur'd thus at home began to search all the corners of the World for Trade and sent forth their Fleets to the East and West Indies to Muscovy by the Bay of St. Nicholas by them Discover'd and Green-Land and indeed whether not whence they returned with Honour and Wealth and made her and themselves Happy One thing that gave a great Advantage to the Trade and consequently to the Wealth of England in her time was the Devastations which the severity of the Duke de Alva and the Wars of Flanders thereby occasion'd caused in those Countries by which means we gained some Addition to our People the knowledge of some Manufactures which we had not before and also a vast stock of Mony and Treasure which altogether had like to have totally ruin'd the Spanish Netherlands but however this concurring with the rest helped to advance England to that height of Wealth and Reputation in the World that it was in her days the Bulwark of Christendom and without any considerable forrein Assistance humbled and brought down the House of Austria which then aimed at an Universal Monarchy But then it cannot be denyed that together with these Low Countrymen Factions and Common-Weath Principles entred England And although the severity of that Queen and the great Affection and Veneration the People had for her added to her Constancy whose Motto was Semper eadem Always the same kept them both under so as they were never able to give her any considerable disturbance yet they grew and encreased and in the Reign of her Successor tugged stoutly in the House of Commons for the Victory with the Court Party as they then stiled all that stood to the Crown and kept King James at Bay and destitute of those Supplies that were necessary to preserve the Grandeur of the Crown and the Reputation of England and forced him to spend Seven Years of his Reign without calling any Parliaments and the last he called which was in his One and Twentieth Year involved him in War And the next basely Betray'd his Son who succeeded presently after to the Necessity of clapping up a Dishonourable Peace for want of Means to carry on a War When King James came to the Crown the Dissenters of England expected a mighty advantage by it because Scotland had been always Presbyterian from whence he came during his time and they hoped his Education might have strongly influenced him to favour them above the Religion Established and upon this intuition Jan. 14. 1603. they procured the Conference at Hampton Court but alass they had so basely and Traiterously used him in Scotland and he was a Prince of that great Learning and Prudence that when they desired a kind of Presbyterie to be Setled here He replyed If you aim at a Scotch Presbyterie Full. C.H. L. 10. p. 18. it agreeth with Monarchy as God and the Devil then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet and Censure me and my Council Therefore I reiterate my former Speech Le Roy S' avisera the King will be advised stay I pray for one Seven Years before you demand it and then if you find me grow pursie and fat I may perchance hearken unto you for that Government will keep me in breath and give me work enough And in the next Paragraph he tells them That he had learned by the Example of his Mother and their dealings with him in his Minority this Maxime NO BISHOP NO KING So they totally failed of their expected advantage and were kept under though with a gentle hand in all his time But when his Son Succeeded and in his Parliaments found how strong these Factions were who had in a great measure prevailed upon the Free-men and Free-holders of the Nation to send up thither great Numbers of good Common wealth men as they then stiled them that is Factious Ambitious Disloyal Persons that hated the Religion and Monarchy by Law Established and when he saw these made it their business to encrease the necessities of the Crown and then denyed just and necessary supplies but upon such terms as would have ruined him and when he also perceived that one great design of theirs was to render him and his Government odious by clamoring eternally against his Conduct and Ministers of State He then saw there was an absolute necessity of a more effectual and vigorous Execution of the Laws against them Hereupon these godly men grew impatient Roger Cokes Englands improvement part 3. p. 13. and one part of them in the years 1636 37 and 38 fled over into Holland and planted themselves at Leyden Alkmare and other places where they instructed the Dutch in our Woollen Manufactures of Norfolk and Suffolk and I have heard saith my Author who is a credible person Sir Charles Harbord a person of great Wisdom and Insight in Forreign as well as the Interest of this Nation say That if all the Bishopricks of England were sold and given to the Nation it would not near compensate the loss the Nation sustained thereby And page 32 of the same discourse he informs us That in the time of our late Wars the Dutch by the means of these Manufactures got from the English the East-land Trade the Company of which heretofore was above all others the most flourishing and by Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First was termed the Royal Company for it supplied Muscovy Sweden Denmark Poland and Lifeland with our Woollen Manufactures and made very advantagious Returns by Treasure especially Hungaria Duckets and the Commodities of those Countries into England This Trade till King Charles his Reign the English solely injoyed About the beginning of King Charles his Reign the Dutch began to be Interlopers rather than Traders with the English in it but in the time of the Wars by
judgment as well as others and if I be adjudged an enemy of the Commons of England for my pains I cannot help it only I have not medled with the Validity of the pardon in all this nor I think never will and so I have not offended against that Vote The Conclusion I shall draw from hence is that the Lords had reason to put the Tryal of the five Popish Lords first and that the Commons necessitated them so to do by that Extraordinary Vote by starting a new Controversy about the Jurisdiction of the Bishops in all Capital causes and by refusing them liberty to do as they always had done before that is to withdraw upon Leave with the usual protestations entered all which things were not presently to be given up nor could suddenly be determined The rest of that day was spent in two Conferences the one concerning the Habeas Corpus Act and the other about the Tryals in which the Long reasons I mentioned were delivered On Tuesday the 27th of May The Habeas Corpus Bill was agreed at a Conference betwixt the two Houses Then a Message was sent by the Lords to the Commons to acquaint them that his Majesty was coming in his Robes who accordingly sent for the Commons and having passed 1. An Act for the reingrossing the Records of Fines burnt or lost in the late Fire in the Temple 2. An Act for the better securing of the Liberty of the Subject and for preventing imprisonment beyond Seas Which is that I call the Habeas Corpus Act for shortness Which were all that had been got ready for his Royal assent in this Session of Parliament His Majesty made a short Speech to this effect My Lords and Gentlemen I Was in good hopes that this Session would have produced great good to the Kingdom and that you would have gone on unanimously for the good thereof but to my great grief I see that there are such differences between the two Houses that I am afraid very ill effects will come of them I know but one way of Remedy for the present assuring you that in the mean time I shall shew my sincerity with the same Zeal I met you here and therefore my Lord Chancellor I command you to do as I have Ordered you Who immediately Prorogued both Houses to the 14th day of August following The news of this Prorogation of the Parliament was no sooner spread about the Nation but the cry was taken up by the zealous Impostors that it was done of purpose to hinder the Tryal of the Popish Lords for as for the E. of D. the People were generally unconcern'd what came of him And dreadful Stories were told in Coffee-houses Ale-houses Taverns and Meeting houses of the danger of Popery and what great favourers they had at Court not sparing his Majesty But this was not all the Act for Regulating Printing expiring with this Session of which no care was taken notwithstanding his Majesty recommended it so seriously to the Parliament by the Lord Chancellour at the opening of it The Nation became presently so pestred with a swarm of Lying Seditious treasonable and scandalous Pamphlets Papers and Pictures that a man would have thought Hell had been broken loose His Majesty the Church the Government were represented every day by them in the most odious manner that spite falsehood and malice could invent to beget a disaffection in the people to the Government and to involve us in another Rebellion And if any man presumed to Defend them he was presently a Papist in Masquerade a Tory or Tantivy man and very often threatned with the Parliament All which was done without doubt out of as pure kindness to his Majesty and to beget honour to the Government and tended as apparently to the Interest and Safety of the Protestant Religion as the Jews Crys of Crucify him Crucify him did to the delivery of our Saviour out of the hands of Pilate There was an Accident that began in this Session of Parliament and received its occasional being from some Distemper'd Spirits In March 1679 there was a Speech said to be made in the House of Lords by a certain * This Speech is Printed in a Pamphlet called An impartial account of divers remarkable Proceedings in the last Session of Parliament London 1679. folio Earl and by the Diffenters and Commonwealth Party spread about the three Kingdoms with a mighty Zeal which in Scotland was followed with the usual effects of such like Speeches and in regard that it may administer much consolation to that Party to read it over again that were so well pleased with it before I will reprint it here word for word My Lords You are appointing of the State of England to be taken up in a Committee of the whole House some day next week I do not know how well what I have to say may be received for I never study either to make my Court well or to be popular I always speak what I am commanded by the Dictates of the Spirit within me There are some Considerations that concern England so neerly that without them you will come far short of safety and quiet at home We have a little Sister and she hath no Breasts what shall we do for our Sister in the day when she shall be spoken for If she be a wall we will build on her a palace of silver if she be a door we will enclose her with boards of Cedar We have several Little Sisters without Breasts the French Protestant Churches the two Kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland the Foreign Protestants are a Wall the only Wall and defence to England upon it you may build Palaces of Silver Glorious Palaces The protection of the Protestants abroad is the greatest power and security the Crown of England can attain to and which can only help us to give check to the growing greatness of France Scotland and Ireland are two doors either to let in good or mischief upon us they are much weakened by the Artifice of our cunning Enemies and we ought to Inclose them with Boards of Cedar Popery and Slavery like two Sisters go hand in hand sometimes one goes first sometimes the other in at doors but the other is always following close at hand In England Popery was to have brought in Slavery in Scotland Slavery went before and Popery was to follow I do not think your Lordships or the Parliament have Jurisdiction there it is an Ancient Kingdom they have an Illustrious Nobility a Gallant Gentry a Learned Clergy and an understanding worthy People but yet we cannot think of England as we ought without reflecting on the condition they are in They are under the same Prince and the influence of the same Favourites and Councils when they are hardly dealt with can we that are the Richer expect better usage for 't is certain that in all Absolute Governments the poorest Countries are always most favourably dealt with When the Ancient Nobility
Independency prevailing at the same time in England on it went with the same force and ruined the poor Kirk of Scotland and made this Covenanting Nation the veriest Slaves in the world and ever since Presbytery there as well as in England have been in a feeble state and they were opprest in their civil Interests Liberties and Freedoms and made such Slaves by a standing Army of English and two Forts which his Majesty hath since demolished that a Scot in those days durst not have walked as I have been told with a Cudgel in his hand and Parliament general Assembly or any other Convention they were never to have more nor any other Address but what they got by most humble Supplication only they had no Bishops so that if his Majesty should restore all things as he found them when God brought him home to his Crown and Kingdoms the Scots would have no reason to thank him for the favour But in the interim I wonder they can reflect thus upon the time when their calamities began which was the very year they sold his Majesties Father into the hands of his Enemies who basely murthered him and not be confounded with horror and shame at the Villany they then did nor yet reflect upon the Justice of God which hath pursued them ever since through all the changes that have happened and having first made their dear Covenanting Brethren of England to begin the Chastisement of them hath gone on from time to time to baffle all their attempts to recover their Lost Estate and they have reason to believe he will do so till the opinions and persons of that schismatical Confederacy be rooted out of the World And here let our English Dissenters too be pleased to remember they have done worse then the Scots for they murthered that Prince which the Scots only sold and by how much they have smarted less then the Scots so much the more is behind and the Justice of God will not be restrained by the Act of Indemnity but he will certainly recompense them according to their deserts with so much the greater severity because they have abused the Lenity of his Anointed and his long-sufferance I shall add but one word more and then see the Catastrophe of these Rebells and that is an humble Request to the Loyal Scots that they would not take this amiss for I heartily applaud their fidelity to his Majesty and acknowledge they deserve to partake of his Royal bounty and Princely favour equally with the English and I wish them all that prosperity and happiness they can desire for they are no otherwise concerned in the Covenanters then the Church of England men are in the evil Actions of the English Dissenters The 20th of June the Duke of Monmouth who went Post into Scotland for that Service went to the Army which the Council of Scotland had prepared for him which lay then at a place called Blackburn where he viewed and muster'd all the Forces and put all things in a readiness to encamp the next day he marched with his Army to Moorhead and the day following to Bothwell bridge Where the Enemy lay about eight Miles distant from his second Camp The place where they then were was called Hamilton Park and was well chosen if it had or could have been well defended for there was no passage to it but over Bothwell bridge which they had well lined with Musqueteers and Barricadoed with Stones Cart Wheels and the like The Dukes Army marched in great silence and Order and had been upon the Rebels before they had taken the Allarm but that their foremost Guards discovered them by the light of their Matches And so they put themselves into a posture of Defence The Duke found the Rebels in two Bodies half a Mile one from the other the foremost Party which was the weakest in Number lay near the Bridge the other near their Camp as high as the liitle Park where they stood in their Orders and Ranks Major Oglethorp posted himself upon the first approach near the Bridge with the Dragoons and the rest of the Dukes Army drew up upon a Hill fronting Hamilton Park about a mile from the Bridge the River being between the two Armies As soon as the Duke came to Major Oglethrop's Post there came out to him from the Rebels one David Haine and another of their Preachers who presented to his Grace the Declaration I have recited Printed and a Petition signed by Robert Hamilton their General in the name of the Covenanted Army then in Arms in which they prayed that the Terms of their Declaration might be made good and that a safe Conduct might be granted to some of their Number to address themselves to his Grace in this Matter To which the Duke replyed that he would not treat with them upon their Declaration the terms of which were contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Land and such as he would not nor could grant as indeed they were too high to have been offered after a Victory much more in the first approaches of a General with a better though smaller Army then theirs But then he told them that if they would lay down their Armes he would receive them into the Kings mercy And with this Answer the two Preachers went back desiring some time to consider which the Duke granted them About half an hour after the Rebels sent a Paper by a Drummer representing that they were informed that his Grace came from England with terms to be offered to them and they desired to know what he had to propose that they might advise whether the Terms were such as they could accept of Whether this were so or no it was very imprudent in them to send this Message before they had excused themselves in relation his first demands and besides this was a mighty slight to the General to demand an account of his private Instructions by a Drummer with a Paper when as it had been fitter to have sent two or three of the best Gentlemen in their Army to have asked this favour with all the Courtship imaginable though their Forces had been much stronger then they were For this indeed was it that made them thus insolent their Preachers had doubtless informed them that the Dukes Army was less then theirs as it is said it was And hence they concluded very ignorantly they might ask what they pleased and have it The Duke was not idle all this while but had ordered his Cannon to be brought down from the Body of the Army and Planted near the Bridge and with them he had Drawn down some part of his Horse and Foot whilst they were treating and took no notice of what he did or at least did not oppose it so they were every moment in a worse condition and he was in a worse condition and he in a better So that being netled with this contempt of theirs he sent away their Drummer with this answer that since they
us that he made claim by Humble Petition in the Name of the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled of the Antient Rights of the Commons for them and their Servants in their Persons and Estates to be free from Arrests and other disturbances in all their Debates to have Freedom and Liberty of speech and as occasion should require to have Access to his Majesties Person Which was allowed by the King But tho he hath not been pleased to Print his own Speech there was one given out for the Information of the People in Writing which was as followeth May it please Your Majesty THE House of Commons have been pleased to Make use of ME for their Speaker and Have presented me for Your Majesties Approbation It is a Place of great Weight and Pains Both by my Education and Profession I have been always used to Labour and Industry Therefore I will by Your Majesties Approbation endeavour to discharge the Trust reposed in me If this were the Preface to the Three Demands or Petitions I cannot blame him for not Printing it no more then I can commend him for making one so totally different from what used to be said on such occasions But a man may smile to see how finely the man had digested and put over all his trembling fears in one Nights time when he called to mind his Education and Profession which he had totally forgot the day before and now having considered better did not think it was fit to ask his Majesty to discharge a person so wonderfully qualified for the Place as all other had done before him being it seems not so sensible that by their Education and Profession they had been used to Labour and Industry And 't is pretty to see how his Majesties Approbation is put into a parenthesis as if one should say it was Needless and scarce worth the asking and the Sence of what he was to speak would have been perfect without it But such was his Majesty's Goodness that he easily passed over these things tho they were apparent encroachments upon his Royal Prerogative and such too as another Prince would have stomached He sought the good of his People more than any thing and for that cause bore these disorders On Munday the 25. of October the Lords sent down an Address they had made to his Majesty for the Pardon of all such persons as should come in and discover any thing further of the Plot within two Months and with it his Majesties Answer which was as followeth HIS Majesty hath Considered of the Address made by the House and is so willing to Encourage all persons who know of any Treasons and Conspiracies against his Person and Government that he will cause his Royal Proclamation to Issue declaring That he will fully Pardon and Secure all persons who shall make such discovery not Onely during the space of Two Months as is desired but at any time after whensoever such discovery shall be made The next day the Commons resolved to make an Address to his Majesty to the same purpose And Mr. Dangerfield the discoverer and great Agent in the Meal-Tub Plott which was a Silly design of the Papists to turn their Plott upon the Presbyterians mentioning Sir Robert Peyton a Member of their House in this Information They referred it to a Committee to Examine the Maters touching Sir Robert Peiton and to report the same to the House And then Resolved Nemine Contradicente That it was the Opinion of their House to proceed effectually to suppress Popery and Prevent a Popish Successor On Wednesday the 27th of October they agreed the said Address which was as followeth WE Your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Commons in Parliament Assembled being highly Zealous for the preservation of the Protestant Religion Your Majesties Sacred Person and Government and resolving to pursue with a strict and impartial Inquiry the Execrable Popish Plot which was detected in the Two Last Parliaments and has been Supported and Carried on by potent and restless Practises and Machinations especially during the late Recesses of Parliaments whereby several persons have been terrified and discouraged from declaring their Knowledg thereof most humbly beseech Your Majesty That for the Security of such persons who shall be willing to give Evidence or make further Satisfactory Discovery concerning the same to this House Your Majesty would be pleased to Issue Your Royal Proclamation assuring all the said persons of your Gracious Pardon if they shall give Evidence or make such Discovery within two Months after the date of such Proclamation There was two Exceptions taken to this Address by others Tho I find none made in the House viz. The first was That in the height of their Zeal they forgot to tell his Majesty what Protestant Religion they meant or desired to preserve for there being in England many not onely several but contrary Religions which yet may be Comprehended under that General term of Protestant Some of which are worse than Popery they were not to be preserved but Suppressed if it might be Except they intended in opposition to Popery to uphold all the Heresies and Schismes that arose in the late Rebellion amounting to near Eightscore as they have been counted but then it had been better to have called them Protestant Religions for it is a perfect piece of Nonsence to call these Contrary and Contending Factions who do mutually endeavour to Ruine each other tho they are now Combined as much against the Religion that is Established as against Popery and to Act against it with more fury than they do against Popery I say it is Nonsence to call these Conjoyntly Religion when if there be or ever were any such things as different Religions in the World these are such and they are as Contrary to the Religion established and each to other as they are to Popery Hitherto the Parliaments had always qualified that loose general word with such terms as these Established or by Law Established or the like and sometimes not so much as mentioned the Word Protestant which is very improperly affixed to any Party of the Reformed Religions of England there being perhaps never a Lutheran in England to take it strictly But we shall see afterwards that it was not a Casual or Accidental omission here but as these Protestants at Large had advanced the greater part of these Commons into that high dignity so they were resolved to lift them up above the Church and Laws by way of Reward tho the Peace of the Nation and the Government were Ruined by it The Second thing objected was That they Tacitly and Injuriously reflected upon His Majesty in their Pretences That during the Recess of Parliament several persons had been terrified and discouraged from declaring their Knowledg of the Plot. As for the Recesses Prorogations and Dissolutions of the Parliaments they were apparently forced upon the King much against his Will by the unreasonable Heats Feuds and Irregularities of the
many other such proceedings As the Parliament that is the Commons Courted the City so the City was as kind to them and Calling a Common Councel Voted an Address to his Majesty to declare their Loyalty and to Petition him that the Parliament might Sit until Protestantisme was Secured I believe they might mean innocently tho I am well Secured that this would have perpetuated them to the End of the World if some amongst them might have been Judges of the time when this great work was perfected But this did not Edify with his Majesty who penetrated to the bottom of these little Projects and was not over-pleased with this Correspondency betwixt this and the Commons remembring what ill effects this Conjunction had in the Reign of his Father So he Advised the Common-Councel to meddle with those things that lay before them and assuring them That he would Labour to maintain the Protestant Religion as it was Established by Law which was more than they desired he dismissed them On Munday the 15th day of November A Bill against the Importation of Cattel from Scotland was Read the first time and Ordered a Second Reading the Saturday following at Ten of the Clock This day was delivered the following Message to the Commons CHARLES R. HIS Majesty did in his Speech at the Opening of this Session of Parliament desire your Advice and Assistance in relation to Tangier the Condition and Importance of the Place obliges his Majesty to put this House in mind again That He relies upon them for the Support of it without which it cannot be much longer preserved His Majesty doth therefore Earnestly Recommend Tangier again to the due and speedy Consideration and Care of this House A Debate thereupon arising in the House they Voted That they would proceed in the Consideration of this Message the next Wednesday Morning at Ten of the Clock A Bill sent down from the Lords Intituled An Act for the better Regulating the Tryals of the Peers of England was Read the Second time and Committed upon the Debate of the House This day the Bill for Disabling the Duke of York was Read the first time in the House of Peers and the question being put Whether it should be read again the House divided Noes 63. Yeas 30. So it was Thrown out the Bishops all appearing against the Bill Except three for which some of the Commons Reflected upon them with great Liberty as if no body could be for the Duke but he must be for Popery The House of Commons taking notice of this were so discomposed that they Adjourned themselves on Tuesday Morning and did nothing that day And the day following meeting in a very bad and discontented humour and taking into Consideration the Message about Tangier They Resolved upon an Address to his Majesty upon the Debate of the House Humbly representing to him the dangerous State and Condition of the Kingdom And then it appearing that George Earl of Hallifax had been very Active in the House of Lords against the Bill for Dis-inheriting the Duke they Resolved also upon another Address to his Majesty to remove the Earl from his Majesties Presence and Councils for Ever And this was all they did the Second day after The House being in a perfect Fret and the Country-Party Heating themselves by their Speeches to that height they were scarce able to Consider what was fit to be said or asked And now that the Peers of England have passed their Judgment concerning this Bill I will add some short Reflections upon the Bill which I shall shall submit to my Reader as it is fit I should First Then I do acknowledg it is a great affliction to any Protestant Country to fall into the Hands of a Popish Prince and worse for England then for most other because of the great and implacable Malice the Jesuits and the whole Church of Rome have ever born to the Religion Established amongst us which is more easily defended against them then any other Reformed Church as being founded upon greater Antiquity and more conformable to the Primitive Church of the Three or Four first Centuries then either the Church of Rome or any of the Reformed Churches in these Western Parts of the World and therefore they of the Church of Rome Have left no stone unturned to Subvert her imploying all their own Wit and Power against her ever since the Reign of Queen Elizabeth began and sticking neither at Perjury Treason Murther nor any other Villany that they thought might conduce to that End and when God had by his Gracious Providence defeated all these their Damnable Projects They Transformed themselves into the shapes of our own Protestant Dissenters and so promoted a Rebellion which ended in the seeming Ruine of this Religion and Government to their mighty Content and Satisfaction but tho his Majesty at his Return re-settled this Church yet they did not give over but by a Toleration by spreading Pamphlets written in the Stile of the Dissenters and so very acceptable to them by discouraging all that opposed our Intestine Divisions and a multitude of such other frauds they have in Twenty Years time so shaken her foundations again that his Majesty can hardly now preserve and uphold her against the Popish Party on the one hand and the Dissenters on the other So that if this poor persecuted Church should fall into the hands of a Prince of their Communion She is to Expect whatever the most Enraged Malice armed with his Authority can inflict upon her and She hath all the reason in the world to expect the Dissenters will joyn with them to afflict and ruine her Not out of any Kindness to Popery but out of an implacable hatred they two have Conceived against her So that I must and will Conclude the Church of England hath the greatest reason in the world to dread that day that shall put her into such hands But yet still with this limitation notwithstanding that by Avoiding one Mischief she should not plunge her Self into a greater that is by flying a Persecution from men to fall into a Rebellion against her God and Saviour by whose Providence Kings and Princes of what Religion soever they be rule and by whom they have in all Ages been so Ordered Disposed and Governed as He in his Divine and Holy Wisdom Saw most Expedient for the Prosperity or Chastisement of his Church to the greater encrease of her Glory and Happiness in the world to come Two things I will lay down as Undoubted Rules or Maximes 1. That the Kingdom of England is an Hereditary Kingdom or Monarchy which for many Ages hath gone to the Next Heirs be they Males or Females of the Blood Royal without any Election or Consent of the People otherwise then by acknowledging their Lawful Right derived from God by their Blood to them The Second is That this Hereditary Monarchy was set up at first and hath been since upheld and maintained by the Providence of
God From which two I will infer this Conclusion That who ever shall attempt to alter this Right of Succession without a manifest revelation which is not now to be expected is a Notorious Usurper upon the Right of the Person who is to Succeed be the pretence for it what it will and a Rebel against that Providence which gave him that Right Nor will all the Antient Rebellions Usurpations and Disorders which have hapned in this Kingdom Justify them that shall begin them again Now if it should please God so to order it that the Duke should at his Majesties Death be the Next Heir to his Crown I cannot see how any humane Power shall prevent his Succession to it but by encroaching upon his Right and by rebelling against the Divine Providence that gave it to him So that be the Inconveniences that shall follow upon such a Succession what they will or can be we must submit to them upon pain of Rebellion against both God and his Anointed our Lawful Prince And then let any man be judge whether it is better to fall into the Hands of a Popish Prince or into the Hands of an Angry God who is a Consuming fire and who is not bound by any Act of Parliament from afflicting a Sinful and Rebellious People So tho the Church of England hath all the reason in the world to dread such a Prince yet she will have greater reason to dread a Rebellion against him because it runs her upon the Divine Vengeance and is directly contrary to her Principles and the Practise of the Apostles and Primitive Church and is plain down-right Popery So that I conclude Neither She nor any of her Children will be guilty of it come what will come But this is not all we are already Sworn to Bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Highness The Oath of Supremacy His Heirs and Lawful Successors and that to our power we shall assist and defend all Jurisdiction Priviledges Pre-Eminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and Lawful Successors or United and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm of which that of an hereditary Succession is one of the principal and we are Sworn not onely to his Majesty whom God Long Continue but also to his Lawful Successors with which Oath none but they that have that Right can dispence for this being a promissory Oath made to them as well as him when their Rights shall fall his Majesty cannot remit their Right nor any of them anothers but they have Every of them in their respective degrees and orders an indispensable Right confirmed to them by this Oath Nor would they cease to be Lawful Successors in the Sence of this Oath tho a Law were made to prevent bar or cut off their Succession because all that is meant by the word Lawful in this place is to be understood by the common Rules of Succession Settled by the Common Law of England viz. the Eldest Son or Daughter before a Younger of the same Sex c. Now if his Majesty cannot do it much less can the Lords or Commons do it because they are all within the obligation of this Oath and it is unreasonable that men should dispence with their own promissory Oathes to others for this would destroy all Faith and Confidence amongst men and pull up the very Roots of all Society and Government Nor can any man imagine that this Oath was made in favour of a Protestant Successor only H. 8. being a Popish Prince in whose time it was Settled at first And the same in effect is Sworn by the Oath of Allegiance with this binding Clause I do believe and in my Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any other Person whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I Acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully Ministred unto me And by this Oath we are also bound to bear Faith and true Allegiance not onely to his Majesty but to his Heirs and Successors and Him and Them to Defend to the Utmost of our power c. Which is to be understood according to their several and respective Rights and at such times as they shall grow and accrew to them and every of them And altho this Oath was Introduced by a Protestant Prince yet is not made to him as a Protestant but as Lawful and Rightful King of this Realm and who ever is So hath and must have Right to impose it upon us be his Religion what it will So that besides the former Sin of Rebellion against the Providence of God Here is an Apparent and Unavoidable Perjury in this Case to Aggravate the other And surely no good Religious man will run upon these two Hideous Sins deliberately to avoid any temporal affliction whatsoever So that were the Case just such as it is represented by the Author of the Character of a Popish Successor It would not Justify the Excluding of such a Successor as he hath described by Force and Arms against his Right and our Oathes to the Contrary tho we were never so certain to Succeed in the Attempt But then that wicked man has most falsly represented things to us and So as it is impossible they should ever prove in the Event if we do not give occasion for it by an improsperous Rebellion nay I believe I may say if we should First it is agreed by All the World That there are Ten Protestants for one Papist thro all the Dominions of England So that if such a Successor should attempt to Extirpate them the bare refusing to aid or assist him in such an enterprize would render it impossible Secondly All our Laws are in favour of that Religion that is Established which could never be Repealed but in Parliament and it is morally impossible to have a Parliament the major part of which will not be Protestants who will never Consent to ruine themselves Thirdly The Revenue of such a Prince will not bear the Charge of so great an Army as will be necessary to reduce the People to a Religion so generally detested and hated as this is In answer to this there is Two things pretended First That he may have Foraign Ayds And Secondly That he will have means to deter or allure many from the Protestant Religion to his own As to Foraign assistances no Prince will dare to admit so many as shall totally over-power his own People because then they will be able to ruine him as the Saxons did the Brittains and he may be sure they will do it So that this is a ridiculous Supposition in a Prince of our own Nation that hath No other Dominions but these As to any Number of People that he may be able to bring over to his Religion they will be very inconsiderable in proportion to those that will never be brought over tho we suppose the Number greater then it is like to be
is founded are weak and unconcluding and that no Malice could have Contrived a more effectual way to hasten those Calamities upon us it pretends to prevent and to ascertain what is full as likely never to happen without it So I conclude the Lords did well and wisely in rejecting the Bill and the Bishops in joyning with them so to do And now I will proceed with the rest of the Votes having made this short Digression to Express my thoughts on this great affair which I submit to the Judgment of wiser men and shall willingly retract or amend any thing if I have erred for I seek nothing by all this but the Peace and Prosperity of my Country There being little done of importance on Thursday the 18th day of November the next day the Commons fell upon the business of the Abhorrers of the Petitions and began with the Grand-Juries for the Counties of Somerset and Devon which had both detested and abhorred the said Tumultuous Petition So they Ordered That Sir Giles Philips and William Coleman being the Fore-men of the said Grand-Juries should be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant at Arms attending their House to answer at the Bar of their House for Breach of Priviledge by them committed against their House Before in Sir George Jeffereys Case it was for betraying the Rights of the Subject and Now 't is become a Priviledge of Parliament for the People to Petition by Hundreds and Thousands for the Sitting of a Parliament At this rate of Proceeding there will be Priviledges of Parliament enough at last At the same time they ordered Captain William Castle and Mr. John Hutchinson and Mr. Henry Walrond the two last being of the said Grand-Juries to be Sent for in Custody too So this was a pretty handsom begining But the next day they found that Mr. William Stawell was Fore-man for the Grand-Jury for Devon and not Mr. Coleman so they ordered his Name to be put out of the Warrant and Mr. Stawell's to be put in This shews with what heat and haste they managed this affair But why should the Fore-men of the Grand-Juries be sent for rather than all or any of the rest the Foreman having no more Authority than the Last man nor being any way inabled by his place to Help or Hinder any thing but being Concluded by the Major part be his own Opinion what it will but they could not tell who promoted this affair and therefore Right or Wrong Singled them out to be made Examples not thinking it convenient to send for the whole Number who yet were punished in these and not only they that suffered but every Gentleman in the Nation suffer'd in them their Liberties being at the Mercy of every Corporation who when they please may send Taylors Grocers c. to enjoy these exorbitant priviledges and Send for the best Knights and Gentlemen in England for not having payd respects great enough to them The Bill of Importation of Cattel from Scotland was read the second time and Committed Then they proceeded in the business of the Abhorrers and Voted That one Thomas Herbert Esq should be sent for in Custody for prosecuting John Arnold Esq at the Council Table for promoting the said Petition and procuring Subscriptions To him they added Sir Thomas Holt Serjeant at Law and Mr. Thomas Staples as Betrayers of the Liberties of the Subject The same day one Eld was discharged out of Custody who had been taken for not Making a good Search for Arms at the Lord Aston's House at Taxall in Staffordshire Notice being taken that he was a Sober Protestant what that means I must leave to my Reader for I never heard that any sort of Protestants made Drunkenness or Debauchery or any other sort of Insobriety a part of Protestantisme and I should have liked it better if it had been a Confiding Man and an Enemy to the Popish Faction It were worth the while to enquire how he stood affected to the Puritan Faction On Munday the 22 of November Two Bills for Regulating Elections were read the second time and Committed to a Committee to unite or divide them as they should see cause The day following Sir Thomas Holt petitioning the House was called in and Censured upon his Knees and Discharged The same day a further Address was Voted to Petition his Majesty to remit a Fine of 500 l. that had been set upon Mr. Benjamin Harris for Printing Seditious Libels Such men were not to be discouraged in an Age when so few were to be found who would undertake that dangerous Imployment for the good of the Nation The same day a Bill was brought in for Repeal of an ACT made in the 35 of Eliz. Cap. 1. Against Seditious and Disloyal Sectaries and Conventicles this Bill passed both Houses but was taken away before it was Signed by the King So that Statute Escaped then to the terror of those Protestants There having been a design to Indict the Duke of York for a Popish Recusant in Trinity Term this Year and the same being prevented by the Court of Kings-Benches discharging the Grand-Jury before they had found the same the House made this Vote That the discharging of a Grand-Jury by any Judge before the end of the Term Assizes or Sessions whilest Matters are under their Consideration and Not presented is Arbitrary Illegal and Destructive to publick Justice a manifest Violation of his Oath what Oath and is a Means to Subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Resolved That a Committee be appointed to Examine the Proceedings of the Judges in Westminster-Hall c. On Wednesday November 24. After Orders for the sending for George Bell an Attorney at Law Arthur Yeomans William Jordan John Laws and Henry Aulnett for Breach of Priviledge of Parliament without assigning wherein Order was given to bring in a Bill 1. To Supply the Laws against Bankrupey 2. And another to take away the Court held before the Lord President and Council in the Marches of Wales Then the Bill for Repeal of the 35 Eliz Cap. 1. was read the Second time and Ordered to be ingrossed Ordered That an humble Address be made to his Majesty from this House by such Members thereof as are of His Majesties Most Honourable Privy Council to desire his Majesty to give Orders That all Protestant Dissenters who are prosecuted upon any Penal Laws made against Popish Recusants in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James may be Admitted to a Composition in the Exchequer without paying any Fees Which was granted by his Majesty Ordered That Leave be given to bring in a Bill declaring that those Laws shall not be Extended to P. Dissenters and that it be referred to the Committee appointed to bring in the Bill for the better Vniting of his Majesties Protestant Subjects The Attorney-General being ordered formerly to attend and This day Called in and Examined touching the Manner of Issuing forth of the P. stiled A Proclamation against Tumultuous
by being troublesom to the Government find they can Arrive to an Indulgence will as their Numbers increase be yet more troublesome so at length they may arrive to a general Toleration which Your Majesty hath declared against and in time some prevalent Sect will at last Contend for an Establishment which for ought can be foreseen may end in Popery It is a thing altogether without Precedent and will take away all means of Convicting Recusants and be inconsistent with the Method and Proceedings of the Laws of England Lastly it is humbly Conceived That the Indulgence proposed will be so far from tending to the Peace of the Kingdom that it is rather likely to occasion great disturbance And on the Contrary That the Asserting of the Laws and the Religion Established according to the Act of Uniformity is the most probable Means to produce a Settled Peace and Obedience through the Kingdom because the Variety of Professions in Religion when Openly indulged doth directly distinguish men into Parties and withal gives them Opportunities to count their Numbers which considering the Animosities that out of a religious Pride will be kept on foot by the several Factions doth tend directly and inevitably to open disturbance Nor can Your Majesty have any Security that the Doctrine or Worship of the Several Factions which are all governed by a Several Rule shall be consistent with the Peace of the Kingdom And if any person shall presume to disturb the Peace of the Kingdome We do in all humility declare That we will for ever and upon all occasions be ready with our Vtmost Endeavours and Assistance to Adhere to and Serve Your Majesty according to our bounden Duty and Allegiance The Reason and Loyalty of this Address prevailed with his Majesty at that time to lay aside all his Thoughts of an Indulgence and well had it been for him and us if he had never reassumed them for from his forsaking this Advice in the Year 1671. Sprung all those Miseries that now so much threaten him and us But tho his Majesty Changed the Parliament kept their grounds for in an Address dated the 14th of Feb. 1672. they assert against His Majesties Declaration of Indulgence dated the 15th of March before That Penal Statutes in Matters Ecclesiastical cannot be suspended but by Act of Parliament We therefore say they the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons do most humbly beseech Your Majesty That the said Lawes may have their Free Course until it shall be otherwise provided by Act of Parliament and that Your Majesty would Graciously be pleased to give such Directions herein that no Apprehensions or Jea ousies may remain in the Hearts of Your Majesties good and faithful Subjects The King not being Satisfied with this but still insisting that he had a Right by his Supremacy to Suspend the Execution of Penal Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs They replyed the 26th of Feb. following That no such Power was ever Claimed or Exercised by any of his Majesties Predecessors and if it should be admitted might tend to the Interrupting of the Free Course of the Laws and altering the Legislative Power which hath always been acknowledged to reside in his Majesty and the Two Houses of Parliament Therefore they did with an Vnanimous Consent become again Humble Suitors unto his Sacred Majesty That he would be pleased to give them a full and Satisfactory Answer to their first Petition and Address and that his Majesty would take such effectual Order That the Proceedings in this Matter might not be for the future drawn into Example To which said last Address his Majesty was pleased to Condescend so far as to Order his Declaration of Indulgence to be taken off the File and Cancell'd Now the use I make of all is to shew first That the Opinion of an Excellent Wise House of Commons was That an Indulgence Toleration or Vnion as they now call it was of a Mischievous Nature and would finally end in Confusion and Popery Secondly That if it should be thought necessary to grant one it being a Legislative Act it must be by the Joynt Consent of the King and the Two Houses and not by any one of them And therefore I will Leave it to the Consideration of the Gentlemen of that House to Judge Whether they did well in passing the Vote of the 10th of January aforesaid for the Suspension of all Penal Laws which relate to the Protestant Dissenters Some pretending to Excuse them have said it was a Vote only in order to a Bill to be brought in for the taking those Laws away But I answer There were several other Bills for that purpose depending and therefore this was in vain Secondly There is no mention of a Bill to be brought in in the Conclusion of the Vote Thirdly They knew they were to be Prorogued as appears by their first Vote and therefore Such a Design would have been impossible Now if they had carried those few Points in this Session First not onely to Deny the King any Supply but to make it Criminal for any man to Lend him any Money upon his Revenues they might then in another Session have gone further and have made it Punishable for any man to have paid him his Just Settled Legal Dues and that would have made them able to have Forced this King or his Successors to what ever they had pleased Secondly If they might have gone on to imprison his Majesty's Subjects in an Illegal and Arbitrary way for Matters that had no relation to Priviledges of Parliament they might afterwards have Extended this to as many Persons and Things as they had pleased and so No man would have dared to have stood by His Majesty against a House of Commons tho they had attempted to Depose his Majesty Nor would his Majesty in a short time have been able to have Protected his Subjects against any injury that they or any of them had been pleased to have done them which would infallibly have Subverted the Monarchy and have introduced a Common-Wealth Thirdly If they had got that great Branch of the Legislative Power into their hands of suspending the Execution of Laws by their Vote they might have driven it as far as they pleased and so have once more Outed the King and the House of Lords as a former Parliament did by the Same Means I will conclude this with the Judgment of a Great and a Learned Man Clarendon's Answer to Hobbs p. 127 128. No Orders made by A House of Commons in England are of any Validity or Force or receive any Submission longer then that House of Commons Continues and if Any Order made by them be against any Law or Statute it is Void when it is Made and receives no Obedience His Majesty then had both Law and Reason on his Side when he ended his Speech to the Next Parliament at Oxford with these Words I WILL Conclude with this one Advice to you That the Rules
and Measures of all your Votes may be the Known and Established Laws of the Land which Neither Can nor Ought to be Departed from nor Chang'd but by Act of Parliament And I may the more reasonably Require That You make the Laws of the Land your Rule because I am Resolved they shall be Mine FINIS ADVICE TO THE READER HAving received the following Papers just as this Tractate was finished and Printed off I thought my self obliged to Comply with the reasonable Request of so many Persons of that Worth and Quality the Subscribers are Thô at the same time I must confess that neither I nor this Treatise do or can deserve that Character their Civility and Goodness have bestowed on us Sir BEing Inform'd that you are upon a Continuation of that Excellent Work Entituled An Address to the Freemen and Freeholders of the Nation and that the Third Part of it is now in the Press we take the Freedom to Trouble you with this our Joynt-Request That if you take any Notice of the Case of Mr. Richard Thompson of Bristol Clerk in the Series of your Narration you will be pleased to give Credit to the Report which we shall here offer you And if you think fitting to Communicate it to the Publick in his Justification and Defence The Particulars hereof we have partly upon very Good Authority And we are able to Testifie the Truth of the rest upon our own Knowledge and Experience as to the Character Life and Conversation of This Worthy Gentleman He was Born of Protestant Parents and Educated in the Methods and Principles of the Church of England He received his Orders of Priesthood from the Hands of Dr. Fuller Bishop of Lincoln in the year 1670. Immediately upon this Qualification he was sent by the Reverend Dr. Pierce to serve in his Cure of Brington in Northamptonshire where he continued some Years with a very Fair Reputation About the year 1675. He removed from thence to Salisbury upon the Invitation of the said Dr. Pierce then Dean of Sarum where he liv'd with him in his own House In the year 1676. The Dean bestow'd upon him first a Prebend And then a Presentation to St. Marie's in Marlborough In 1677. He Travail'd with Mr. Jo. Norborne of Calne in Wiltshire but within less than a Twelvemonth he was Recall'd upon the Vacancy of Bedminster by Bristol his Present Living When he was abroad he neither Studyed at St. Omers nor Douay as was suggested Nor ever saw those Places nor pass'd into any part of Flanders or Italy but France alone He spent near Seven Months of his time at Paris and in the Academy of Monsieur Fonbert a Protestant still frequenting the English Ambassador's Chappel and receiving the Sacrament there And during his stay he Preach'd twice and read Prayers often in That Chappel At Guien upon the Loyre he sojourn'd all his time there with Monsieur Du Paizy the Protestant Minister Frequenting the Protestant Church and that only Receiving the Sacrament also from the hands of Monsieur Du Paizy to put those Men out of hope of Gaining him over that had already Sollicited him by fair Promises of Advantage to the Communion of the Church of Rome At Blois he kept himself also upon the same Reserve avoiding even to Lodge in the House of a Romanist but upon Absolute Necessity He was not yet so Rigorous as not to allow himself in a Curiosity to make an Acquaintance as well with Persons Eminent in their several Orders of the Church of Rome as with the Famous Men of the Protestant Churches He does not deny but that he had twice or thrice seen Mass performed while he was abroad but it was Curiosity not Religion that carried him thither And that he is so far from being stagger'd in his Faith by any thing he saw abroad that he is the more Confirm'd in it And that he would rather Beg within the Communion of the Church of England than be the greatest Person the Church of Rome could make him out of it Since his Return in 1678. No man hath kept himself more strictly to the Orders of the Church of England He hath taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy at least Eight several times Preaching and Acting in Conformity thereunto He never Refus'd any Test of Fidelity to the Government and Declares himself Ready to take any farther Tests that shall be lawfully impos'd upon him Sir We have Extracted these Particulars from Evidences Uncontestable and we reckon it our Duty to God to the Church to Common Justice and to Persecuted Innocence to Present This Account to your self in hopes that you will Transmit it with your own Ingenious Reflexions to the View and Consideration of the World We have Annexed hereunto a short Summary of what will be Attested on his behalf since he came to Bristol And we have thereunto subjoyn'd several Fair and Ample Certificates in his Vindication and Defence We could have added many more as particularly A Certificate of the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop Now of Chichester late of Bristol who has been pleas'd to Certifie Mr. Richard Thompson to be in these very words A Person of much more then ordinary Endowments for Learning an Excellent Preacher and which Crowns both the Former a Man of a Clean Life and Vnreproveable Conversation A Person free from Novelties in Religion but very sound and Orthodox in the Doctrines he Preaches and thoroughly Conformable as to Discipline c. And then afterward his Lordship Concludes thus I know no Young Man of his Years that better deserves very Good Preferment in our Church then This Young Man doth And this I do Testifie sincerely from my Heart and give under my Hand this Fourteenth day of September in the year of our Lord 1679. at my Palace in Chichester For the Truth and Authority of the whole Matter we are willing and ready to become Answerable and shall take it for a singular Kindness if you will be pleas'd to let These Testimonials pass into the World at the instance of Sir Your humble Servants Thomas Eston Mayor Sir Richard Crump Kt. Sir John Knight Kt. James Twyford Walter Gunter Thomas Davidge John Yeomans Touching Mr. THOMPSON's Care and Pains at BRISTOL in the Discharge of his Function there And his Reputation among the Inhabitants of the said City 1. IT is Undeniably known That he hath brought over many Anabaptists and Quakers to the Church of England there and Baptized them Publickly 2. That he hath Instructed and Grounded many Hundreds of Children who were afterward Confirmed by the Bishop of the Place in the Catechism of the Church of England 3. It is certain that he is never without a Full Auditory whensoever he Preacheth or when he Readeth the Prayers only And that he hath in his time much encreased the Number of Communicants 4. There are many most Worthy Gentlemen in That City that will not be Ashamed to own their Establishment in the Church of England to
the great Pains which he hath taken With and Among them Lastly In Testimony of the High Esteem that the Inhabitants of That City had of This Gentleman they Met him with a great many Horsemen at his Return from his Persecution in London and bad him Wellcom again to the Place of his Residence with the Highest Expressions of Joy and Acclamation Sir John Lloyd's Certificate concerning Mr. Thompson under the Seal of the Office of his Majoralty WHereas Richard Thompson Vicar of St. Mary Redcliff and St. Thomas two Eminent Churches within the City of Bristol even from the time of his first appearance to officiate in those Churches hath been privily traduced and now of late openly and maliciously branded by the multiforme Fanaticks of this City for a Church-Papist and Jesuite for the Rector of St. Omers so Nick-naming St. Thomas and with many like Terms of Obloquy and Slander the Invention whereof may be reckon'd upon as the very first and peculiar gift of that Party whose great and only Master-piece it hath been and still is by like Maliciously Witty and Wicked Methods and Artifices to expose alike His Loyalty and Ministry and to lessen that Esteem and Reputation he hath thereby gained in the Hearts and Affections of all the Kings Majesties Loyal Loving Subjects within this City These are therefore at the Request of and just Due to the said Richard Thompson to Certifie unto all unto whom these Presents shall come that the said Richard Thompson is well known to me John Lloyd Knight and Major of the said City and to all the Kings Majesties Loyal and Loving Subjects therein to be a Person of most Innocent and Exemplary Life and Conversation a most Constant and Careful Dispenser of God's most Holy Word unto the People under his Charge a most Diligent and Zealous Assertor of the Kings Majesties Supremacy in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil in opposition to all Schismatical and Factious Persons and Principles under what Names soever they pass or prevail amongst us and also of all the Christian Doctrines together with the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England as they are now Owned and Established by Law In Testimony whereof I have caused the Seal of my Office of Majoralty to be affixed Dated the Eighteenth Day of September Anno Dom. 1679 John Lloyd Major The Dean and Chapter of Sarum their Certificate OMnibus quorum interest innotescat per Praesentes Ricardum Thompson in Artibus Magistrum Vicarium de Bedminster juxta Bristoliam quamdiu apud nos commoratus est pie vitam sobrieque laudabiliter tradâ—xisse In concionibus saepe habendis sedulo curam adhibuisse strenue studiis Theologicis navasse operam Nec unquam quod scimus docuisse quicquam vel tenuisse quod Ecclesia Anglicana non etiam appobut atque tuetur Cujus praesertim Disciplinae superioribus quibuscunque ab omni parte conformem morigerumque se praestit it In quorum omnium Testimonium fidem iisdem faciendam nomina nostra cognomina plane ex animo apposuimus Sept. 13. Annoque Salutis reparatae 1679. Thomas Pierce Dec. Sarum Daniel Whitby Praecentor Sarum Ricardus Drake Cancellarius Sarum Ricardus Hill Can. Resid Sarum Franciscus Horton Can. Resid Sarum A Certificate Signed by several of his Auditors upon the Thirtieth of January 1679. being Persons of great Reputation for Loyalty as well as Fortune THese are to Certifie all whom it may concern That we whose Names are hereunto Subscribed were present at the Parish Church of St. Thomas within the City of Bristol on the Thirtieth Day of January 1679. where we then heard Mr. Richard Thompson Preach very solemnly on the Occasion of that Days Fast To which Sermon every one of us for himself doth Declare he was very attentive And we do all hereby Certifie and Declare that we do not remember that the said Mr. Thompson did then say in his Prayer or Sermon That there was no Popish Plot but a Presbyterian Plot or any thing to that or the like effect And we are ready to make Oath of the same if required But on the contrary we have heard him detest and abhor the Popish Plot. And we do further Certifie That the said Mr. Thompson is and by all the time we have known him hath been a True and Loyal Subject to our Most Gracious Soveraign and of a very Sober and Pious Life and Conversation amongst us every way suitable to his Function Witness Our Hands this Thirteenth day of November 1680. John Hicks Alderman Sir Richard Crump Ald. Sir John Knight Kt. George Morgan Thomas Davidge Edmond Brand John Broadway Walter Gunter John Hellier John Oliff John Yeomans John Combes Sheriff George Boucher Thomas Turner George Hart Sheriff James Millerd Ralph Oliff James Twyford Daniel Pym Thomas Hartwell Edmund Arundel Richard Benson Francis Yeomans Thomas Durbin Charles Allen. THE END