Peer who made publick Profession of the Popish Religion and who at the time of his first professing it declared that for a great while before he had believed that to be the only true Religion 'T was by virtue of this Illegal Commission that the Lord Bishop of London was Suspended only because he refused to obey an Order sent him to suspend Dr. Sharp then Rector of S. Giles without so much as Citing him before him to make his own Defence or observing the common Forms of Process By the same Court was Dr. Hough President of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford turned out tho' duly chosen by the Fellows of the said College and afterwards all the Fellows of the said College only for refusing to chuse for their President a Person recommended to them by the Kings Evil Counsellors Iustigation Tho' the Right of a Free Election belonged uâ— oubtedly to the said Fellows and that it is expresly provided in Magna Charta that no Man shall lose Lâ—fe or Goods but by the Law of the Land More than that the said College was wholly put into the hands of Papists who by the Law of the Land and the Statutes of the College are altogether Incapable of such Imployments By the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience His Majesty Commanded the same to be Read in all Churches and Chappels whereby he would have the Clergy to be his Cryers to proclaim his pretended Power to Suspend at once the Force and Use of our Penal Laws made for the Security of our Religion and Property And when the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and six other Bishops offered His Majesty an humble Petition in Terms full of Respect containing in short the Reasâ—ns why they could not Obey the Order sent them to appoint the Clergy to read the Declaration in their Churches the said Bishops were Committed to the Tower and afterwards brought to a Tryal whose Crime was only a due Regard to the Laws They were Acquitted and for that piece of Justice Judge Holloway and Judge Powel were Displaced And because their Acquittal had caused an universal Joy some were brought into Trouble for their innocent Expressions of it Then came out an Order from the Lords Commissioners requiring all the Chancellors and Arch-Deacons of England to return the Names of all such as had read the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and of those that had not read it whether they were injoyned or not injoyned to do it by their respective Bishops And 't is observable that in the Bishoprick of Durham the Bishop whereof was one of the Commissioners near 200 Ministers were Suspended for not Reading the Declaration Hitherto the Court had carried on their Interest bare-fac'd at least since the Ill-tim'd Rebellion of Monmouth and Argile and Dissimulation unless it were to Dissenters had no share in their Transactions But whilst the Church of England was under Persecution it was thought convenient to Protect such of the French Refugees as ventured to fly hither from the now raging Persecution in France Insomuch that notwithstanding King James's strict Friendship and Correspondence with the French King His Majesty Protected them with his Favour and Relieved them with his Royal Briefs But the Reason of the Thing is plain The Court of France were got over the Dissembling Part and all Things there were ripe for Action Whereas in England the Persecution of some was thought fit for a while to be Palliated by the Toleration of Others though all equally design'd for Destruction The same however of this Indulgence to the French Protestants invited Multitudes of them hither to feel the benefit of it in their distressed Condition The Sight whereof stirred the Compassion of most People even of Sober Papists whilst the Plurality of them made it their business all over the Kingdom to stem our Charity by crying down the Persecution Which as fam'd as it was all over Europe for the unparallell'd Cruelty of it these Men had the Face to deny representing the Poor Refugees as so many Cut-throats and Vagabonds whom we must be forsooth aware of A base Inhumane Thing it was thus to insult over the Oppressed and to add so cruelly Persecution to Persecution But this is true Roman Zeal Two Things did prompt them to it First their just Apprehension that this Spectacle would be a Caution for us to look to our selves and stand upon our Gard. Secondly That such an Addition of incensed Protestants to so great a Party as that they must struggle with was not at all agreeable to their Interest The Truth is we ought to admire the singular Providence of God in our behalf that this French Persecution should be so timed as to give us a seasonable Alarm to prevent the same here that our Persecutors Precipitation and Folly should be so great as to open their wicked Designs so early and to send us over so many Thousands of Witnesses as it were to awaken us and to let us see what we ought to look for whenever their Bloody Religion should come to prevail among us Whereas 't is probable otherwise that the good Nature of some and the Weakness and Corruption of others had put us to use Dr. Burnet's Words to a more melancholy and troublesome After-game In the mean time Nothing was omitted to Incourage Popery upon all Accounts tho' never so much against Law New Popish Chappels and Mass Houses were set up New Popish Schools and Monasteries Erected four Popish Provincial Bishops establish'd Priests and Jesuits so Incouraged that England swarmed with them as Egypt did of old with Frogs Lice and Locusts the Privy Council made up of Popish Lords and some Protestants not much better the Jesuit Father Petre a Member thereof and the chief Director of the Cabal Council a Nuncio admitted and a solemn Embassy sent to Rome in the person of the Earl of Castlemain All this in open Defiance to the Laws Such was besides the Corruption and Depravation of Justice in the Courts of Judicature that the Judges must either be biassed by the King's Will or expect a Quietus est as in the Case aforesaid of Holloway and Powel The Juries commonly returned by secret Contrivances and illegal Nominations being neither as the Law Requires of the most sufficient nor most indifferent of the nearest Neighbours to the Facts in question nor by sworn Sheriffs So that any Mans Life or Estate not well affected to the then Government was in great Jeopardy if called into Question Besides that by putting the Administration of Justice into the hands of Papists all Matters of Civil Justice were brought to great Uncertainties Who being under an Incapacity by Law there lay no obligation upon any Man to acknowledge or obey their Judgments and all Sentences by them given were null and void of themselves Thus in few years the Popish Party being become Masters of the Affairs of the Church of the Government of the Nation and of the Course of Justice subjected them
Succession would not as he thought recoil and leave him now in the lurch who so lately had made unto them new Protestations of his particular Favour and Protection The Dissenters were then under the lash of the Law and not without some apprehension of the French Thus with this prospect of Things the King fell presently to work by feeling first under-hand the Pulse of Men in Credit and Authority amongst his Protestant Subjects But whilst he was taken up with these gentle Motions a Storm was raised all of a sudden in Scotland by the late Earl of Argile and at the same time another in the West of England by the late Duke of Monmouth Who both appeared in Arms with their Parties in their several Stations but so unsuccessfully that after the loss of many Mens Lives in the Field they lost their own upon the Scaffold These two Rebellions which startled so much the Popish Party till they saw the Issue of it gave them a great Advantage and raised their Expectations of Success to an Infallibility The King had now a great Army on foot And tho the VVork was done for which the same was raised yet he would not part with it but kept it still on foot contrary to Law for his further Designs and to keep the Nation in aw For the Preservation of our Laws Religion and Liberties it was provided by the Wisdom of our Parliaments upon the Growth of Popery in the late King's Reign That all Persons appointed to bear any Office in Church or State should declare themselves to be not Papists but Protestants by taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test and receive thereupon the Sacrament according to the Church of England But upon the Raising of the foresaid Army the King was pleased to protect against those Laws many Popish Officers that served in the Army without taking the Oaths And in his Speech to both Houses of Parliament on the 9th of Novemb. 1685 he told the Parliament in plain words That though the said Officers were not Qualified according to the late Tests for their Employments yet he would neither expose them to Disgrace nor himself to the Want of them And tho the Parliament did highly except against it as an open Violation of those Laws which were our main Bulwark against Popery yet his Majesty would by no means recede from his Word A Debate was held to dispence those Unqualified Officers then actâ—ally in Service with the Fenalty of the Law provided no more were admitted But this would not serve the King's turn Who to prevent any further Heats about it prorogued the Parliament tâ—ll Feb. 10 following and so put it off by further Prorâ—gations till it was at last Dissolved Mean whiâ—e he made it his business to New-model his dearly beloved Army now consecrated to more pious I ses and kept on foot to accomplish the great Work of resturing Popery Both Officers and Soulâ—iers were Reformed and such of both sorts put in as would incourage and promote the Design â—o lose no Time whole Sholes of Priests and Jesuits with Multitudes of Lay-Papists came over daily from France and other Parts as often as the Wind would permit some to Convert us and others to Cut our Throats The first like the Pharisees came over by Sea and Land to make Proselytes and liked England so well that they stuck to it like Burr Whilst poor Lapland and other wretched Countries are left to their Temporal and Spiritual Darkness seldom visited by those Lights of the Roman Church And first to take off from our Minds the frightful Notions we had of Popery they laid aside the old way of Controversies from Scripture Tradition and Reason and so new-vamped their Roman Tenets after the Bishop of Meaux late invented Dress that it was hard to discern at first view the Popish from the Protestant Religion Such was their Resemblance that it was Alter Ego But the Cheat was quickly found out and hissed at here by all Men of Reason and Understanding Then was held a Disputation at White hall in the King's Presence wherein his Party came off so shamefully that his Majesty was fain to excuse their Weakness by saying That a good Cause might be baffled Yet notwithstanding these Repulses the Popish Emissaries having now contrary to Law the liberty of the Press ply'd it hard to get Proselytes but still with little Success Providence had so ordered it that the Church of England was never stocked with so many Sound Pious and Learned Divines as we had in this Juncture So that this Spiritual War begun by Priests and Jesuits ended to their Confusion The Church of England bore the brunt of it all and the Dissenters would not meddle for fear of giving Offence nor was there any need of it The King found by this time how little was to be expected from Roman Emissaries and that Compulsion at last must do the Work France shewed him the Way where the holy Design was now ripe for Execution without any fear of a Check from England For now King Lewis fairly pulled off the Mask and by his Edicts Anno 1â—85 told the World in plain terms that his Design of Reconciling his Protestant Subjects to the Holy Church was from his Coming to the Crown that all his former Edicts in their behalf his Acknowledging and Registring in Parliament their great Services to the Crown and his Advancement of many of them to the highest Dignities Civil and Military were but so many Blinds to cover his Design for which he calls God to witness to abolish their Religion by degrees And to shew what Opinion he had of Protestants he declared them Incapable to claim the benefit of Treaties Promises or Oaths made to them by the Papists According to these his Vnchristian Principles he broke the sacred Ties of Religious Oaths by Revoking his Protestant Subjects grand Charter of Priviledges the famous Edict of Nantes which from its very Foundation was counted Irrevocable and by forcing his Religion upon them through the miraculous Virtue of his Apostolick Dragoons Who 't is true had no Commission to take away their Lives but all the Comforts thereof by Want and barbarous Usage Spoiling and Plundering dark Prisons and loathsom Dungâ—oâ—s by parting the Husband and Wife and robbing Parents of their dearest Children But lest the VVorld should think that the French King's Zeal was confined within the Bounds of his Dominions he lost no Opportunity to make it known that his Design was against the whole Body of Protestants and first against the English whose Conversion would much facilitate that of other Protestant Nations This appears by that noted Speech made to him at Versailles in the Year 1685. by a French Bishop in the Name of the whole Clergy of France VVherein the Bishop having magnified the King for his Zeal in Suppressing the Protestant Religion in his Kingdom tells him that England offered to his Majesty one of the most glorious Occasions
are now able by the Grace of God to lift up our Heads beyond their expectation But if you inquire into the Causes of this sudden Change a Nameless Author will bring you in a parcel of Jesuits a sort of hair-brain'd Statesmen and yet bred up in a Cloyster who being unacquainted both with the English Temper and Constitution hoped to have carried two such things as Popery and Arbitrary Power both at once upon so Jealous a Nation as the English is which hates them above any other People in the World And yet these are the Men that bore the greatest sway in King James's Counsels I confess says he a Nation of less Sense might have been Imposed upon of less bravery and Valour might have been Frighted of a more servile Temper might have neglected its Liberties till it had been too late to have recovered them These Jesuits Manage with the Dissenters of one side and the Church of England Party on the other shews how shallow-brain'd they were One would think the cruel Slaughter they had caused to be made by the Course of Justice of the poor Wretches that were taken after the Defeat of Monmouth's Army near Bridgewater should have made them for ever despair of gaining any Credit with the Dissenters who rarely forgive but never forget any ill Treatment But on the contrary they had so little sense as to build all their hopes on them for having procured unto them a Liberty of Conscience Arbitrarily and Illegally granted and consequently Revocable at the Will of the Granter Thus these little Politico's rely'd upon the Dissenters Gratitude and pretended Insensibility as if for an uncertain Liberty of Conscience they would have sold themselves to everlasting Slavery On the other side if we look upon their Carriage towards the Church of England Party it will appear how little they were to be trusted by the whole Protestant Party First they pursued both Clergy and Laity with the utmost obloquy hatred oppression and contempt But when they sound the Dutch Storm coming upon them who but the Church of England Men Then the Bishops were presently sent for and all Places Presses and flying Papers fill'd with the Encomiums of the Church of England's Loyalty who but few days before were represented as Malecontents if not Rebels and Traytors for Opposing the King's Dispensing Power and the Ecclesâ—astical Commission To Compleat their Folly and Madness they perswaded King James to Throw up the Government and Retire into France For they pretended we should never be able to agree amongst our selves but would in a short time be forced to recall him and fairly yield to his Will and Pleasure or be compell'd to it by the Succours he might gain in France Had France been now in Peace there might have been says my Author some Colour for this But when all Europe was under a Necessity to Unite against him for its own Preservation then to perswade King James to desert his Throne and fly to France for Succour this was so silly a Project that there seems to have been something of a Divine Infatuation in it The Prince of Orange might have taught them cunctari who would not stir from Holland till he saw France and Germany irrevocably Ingaged in War as it happened by the Siege of Philipsburg Thus all Things considered either King James should have staid here and made as good Terms as he could with the Prince of Orange and his own Subjects Or if he would Abandon his Kingdoms he ought to have despaired of any Restitution and betaken himself to a private Life as Queen Christina did THE POSTSCRIPT By Way of Advice to the Jacobite Party NOw Ireland is Reduced and the Scotch Rebellions Suppressed 't is high Time for you Gentlemen to Capitulate Providence has declared it self against you your Idol the French King's Oracles are ceased and he has now at last most basely left you in the lurch In short there is no hopes or prospect of Relief You have done enough in Conscience and more than enough for King James You have out-done not only your Ancestors but Primitive Christianity it self in your fond Scruple of Conscience about the Oaths and have evidenced to the World how Impossible it is to serve two Masters Only some of you went too far and made shift for King James's Service to swear themselves true Subjects to King William and Queen Mary too To bring back King James with Popery Triumphant you have stuck at nothing and have over come even Nature it self by putting your selves under a King's Protection who ever was an Enemy to this Crown and Nation I mean the great King Lewis whose Quarrel you espoused whose Greatness you admired whose Successes you applauded too A Most Christian King in League with Turks and Tartars now become your Confederates against the Prefessors of the Name of Christ A Prince who has a great Account to give to God and Men of his infinite Extortions Rapines Violences Breach of Faith Bloodshed and Persecutions With this great Tyrant Usurper and Persecutor you have indeavoured to Overthrow the present Government by dark Plots and Conspiracies by bold Speeches and virulent Libels by filling the Nation with Fears and Jealousies But that which I chiefly admire you for is your Withstanding all Temptations of Plenty Ease and Liberty to become miserable Slaves even for Conscience sake Your being proof against the strongest Arguments of the best Pens of the Nation which could never make the least Impression upon you To which add your fervent but ineffectual Prayers and Supplications to God for a Blessing upon your â—â—â—â—al Indeavours and if they have not prospered 't is not your Fault In a Word so transcendent and meritorious has been your Loyalty to the late King James that no Age can parallel it So great that like Solomon's Wisdom never was the like before it nor I hope will ever be after So desperate that it made you willing to Sacrifice your Lives and Fortunes your Liberty Nation Posterity and some of you their Religion only to have the Satisfaction to sing Allelujah at the Return of King James All this was well enough according to your Principles as long as Limerick held out But now the Case is altered and it is time to Desist King James his Back-door is shut and the Great King having now withdrawn his powerful Arm t is in vain for you to hold out I advise you therefore to Surrender while it is time to Their Majesties Mercy and to become Their true and faithful Subjects under whose easy Scepter you may live happily Thus you will be no more lookt upon as you have been hitherto with Pity Scorn and Indignation With Pity as being Misguided by an erroneous Principle With Score for the greatest Infatuation that Men were ever guilty of to stand for Slavery when you are Free as you wished for Deliverance when you were in Captivity With Indignation as being the Bane of the Government under whose Protection you live When all is done you cannot but grant that the King is none of those frightful Princes that you took him to be from the Lords Speech without Doors and others of his Kidney Nor have we felt in the space of almost three Years any of those direful Influences of his Reign which those unlucky Fortune-tellers did once threaten us with He is a merciful King You have experienced it A Wise and Warlike Prince France it self does own it So great is his Fame and Interest abroad that He is in a manner the Oracle of most Christian Princes and the most likely King we have had since Henry Vâ—to make this Nation both Glorious and Happy As he is a Pattern for Princes in point of Government so in the Course of a Christian Life he is a Pattern for Subjects being both Good and Great and therefore the fittest Monarch to make this Nation so After so many esseminate and inglorious Reigns what greater Blessing could Heavens bestow upon us than a Prince so well qualified to Reign in these Kingdoms This is not all It has pleased God to redouble our Happiness by setting over us in Conjunction with his Majesty a Queen who is the Glory of her Sex and a Princess alone worthy of so great a Prince Let us therefore be Unanimous and say with one Voice God Save and Prosper King William and Queen Mary An Advertisement of some Books sold by Samuel Clement at the Lute in Paul's-Church-Yard 1. GOd's Revenge against Murther and Adultery expressed in Thirty several Tragical Histories The Third Edition By Thomas Wright M. A. of St. Peters College in Cambrâ—dge 2. The English Grammar setting sorth the Grounds of the English Tongue By Guy Miege Gent. The Second Edition 3. The Delightful History of Don Quixot the most Renowned Baron of Mancha With the Comical Humours of Sancho Panca The Second Edition
that he could wish for and that his British Majesty wanted nothing but his Protection and the Support of his Arms to settle the Catholick Religion in his Dominions This Speech was published by the French King's Authority and the Translation of it suffered to come over freely into England VVhich lookt something odd and beneath a King of England to be thus expos'd to the VVorld as a Prince to come under the Protection of a King of France over whose Kings and Kingdom his Ancestors had so often Triumphed But nothing it seems was to be thought Inglorious that might serve the Popish Design of Rooting out the Protestant Religion Such was King James his Zeal for Mother Church that according to Father Peter's Relation his Majesty told him in his Chamber That he had rather Reign but one Year to an end tho in Troubles and die with the Conversion of England Scotland and Ireland than to Reign prosperously 30 years and leave them in Heresy as he sound them at his Accession to the Crown A Zeal in some sense like that of Moses who to save the People under his Government was willing to be blotted out of the Book of Life By this Saying and his Proceedings with the French King's Assistance we may guâ—ss what he intended for us To convert us he went about to subvert the Laws and to make us good Christians after his own Way he made his Will the measure of his Government without any regard to his Oaths and Promises to Justice or Equity However to colour what he did with some shew of Justice he set up a new Claim a Thing called the Dispensing Power unknown to former Ages and now suddenly started up as a Branch forsooth of the King's Prerogative By which means he threw aside those two great Stumbling-Blocks the Penal Laws the Tests being all our legal Securities for the Preservation of our Religion and Liberties and so shook the very Foundation thereof that we had no Security lest against his Will and Pleasure 'T is not denyed that in the Cases of Treason and Felony the King of England may by vertue of his Prerogative Pardon the Punishment that a Transgressor has incurred But it cannot be with any colour of Reason inferred from thence that the King can intirely-suspend the Execution of those Laws relating to Treason or Felony unless it is pretended that he is Cloathed with a Despotick and Arbitrary Power And as no Laws can be made but by the joint Concurrence of King and Parliament so likewise Laws so Enacted which secure the publick Peace and safety of the Nation and the Lives and Liberties of every Subject in it cannot be Repealed or Suspended but by the same Authority 'T is true the Judges declared this Dispensing Power to be a Right belonging to the Crown But before that pernicious Judgment could be obtained first the Opinion of the Judges was privately examined Such of them as could not in Conscience concur in so pernicious a Sentence were turned out and others substituted till by the Changes which were made in the Courts of Judicature that Judgment was at last obtained to give some Credit to the Cause And amongst those that were raised to these Trusts some were professed Papists and consequently Incapable of all such Imployments However it does not appear how it is in the Power of the Twelve Judges to offer up the Laws Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by Him at his Will and Pleasure 'T was by vertue of this Imaginary Power which made the King break loose upon the Laws and govern by his Will that He imposed upon his Subjects such Magistrates as he thought fittest for his turn some true Papists and others false Protestants such as would go a great way if not through-stitch to serve his Popish-Designs And tho' they were admitted without taking the Oaths in that Case provided and consequently no lawful Magistrates yet all were threatned vexed and prosecuted who durst but say that they had no lawful Authority By Virtue of the same Power the Kingdoms Military Defence was put into such Hands as by many express Laws were Incapable of them Which justly gave the Protestants sad Apprehensions of imminent Danger seeing themselves put into the Power of Men that publickly professed to be in Union and Communion with the Church of Rome declaring themselves to be mortal Enemies to Protestants and bound upon their Salvation to seek their Ruin and Destruction if they persisted in their Religion Thus an Army of Papists and Mercenaries was maintained and dispersed through the Kingdom in full Peace to the great disquiet and terrour of the Protestants Who contrary to the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom and the express Words of the late Statutes were constrained to receive those Souldiers into their Houses whereby they were deprived of their Peace and Security at home of a free Converse abroad and of the Advantages they might make otherwise in their Ways of living The Church of England was by this time grown out of Favour with the King for her Steaâ—iness to the Laws and strong Zeal against Popery And who should now grow into favour with his Majesty at least in outward appearance but the Dissenting Party the Object of his Resentment and Indignation when he came to the Crown The King knew how to turn the stream of his Kindness and to shift from one Side to another that losing one Party he might make sure of another 'T is true some Leaders amongst the Dissenters made an advantage of this Turn for their private Interest but the thinking Part of them who knew where the Snake lay did not build much upon it Not could the King expect much from them considering how lame and falsify'd were most of the Addresses His Majesty receiv'd from that Party The King to aw the Church erected a Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Affairs whose Commission was to proceed with a Nonâ—bstante that is without and against the Rules of our Laws And to please the Dissenters He put out a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience to all sorts of Persuasions with a secret Intent that none should have it at last but the Papists The First was by Commission so far from any Colour of Law that it was against most express Laws to the Contrary and the extent of the Commission was to take Cognizance and Direction of all Ecclesiastical Matters The Illegality and Incompetency whereof was so notoriously known and the Design of it against our Religion so plain that the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury being one in the Commission refused to fit or concur in it For the chief Design of this Court was to Raise none to any Church Dignities but such as had no Zeal for the Protestant Religion who cloaked their Unconcernedness for it with the specious Pretence of Moderation and to oppress such of the Clergy as were of eminent Learning Vertue and Piety In this Commission was a Noble