of Wards and Liveries which was of twice that yearly value besides the Interest he had thereby in almost all his Subjects Estates If then His Majesty hath hitherto done nothing tending to the setting up the Government pretended to be feared for it can be but a pretence tho he hath sometimes had two Millions and never till of late less than about 150000 l. per annum certainly having now not much above a Million per annum and no power to raise any but by Act of Parliament and his Parliament of late years been so unkind as to give him nothing its nonsence and malitious for any man to talke and as great folly to believe that there should now be a design on foot to set up or Introduce a new method of Government In my opinion it is so far from it that the aforesaid Acts have taken away all possibility thereof turned things to another Extream and so limited the Civil Magistrates Power that in many cases they will find it dificult to mentain the Government in so headstrong and stubborn an Age as ours now is This that hath been said being seriously Considered I hope will leave room in no Man for so much as a Suspicion or jealosy of any Design in the King to Introduce Arbitrary Government without which it is Impossible to set up Popery or Invade Liberty and Property Not but that I must acknowledge and confess there hath since His Majesties happy Restauration been some things done which seemed to have a tendency to all these mischeifs These I shall breifly give Account of show how they came about the evil Effect they have had what Inconveniencies they have occasioned who advised those Councils and since have Endeavoured to bring His Majesty his Ministers and Government in Contempt with his people for the mischiefs that have happened as the Events and ill Consequenses of such their own pernicious Machinations And when I have done with this point I shall Endeavour to show how little Danger there is of Poperies coming into England tho a Popish successor should happen and that all the noise made about that is only a design set on foot by the French King and managed by his Pentioners in secret Conjunction with our Male-contents and men of Common-wealth Principles on purpose to create Jealosies fears and troubles amongst us and hinder our King and his people from Uniting till the French King hath made his Game sure finisht his Conquests destroyed the Protestants and their Religion abroad that with the more Ease he may destroy us and it together in England and I will endeavour to demonstrate that nothing else can be or is designed by most of the hot headed Gentlemen whatever pretence they make to the contrary who spend their whole time keeping several Companies purposely to exclaim against His Majesty his Ministers and Government but to promote Popery which they so cry out against and advance the Popish Interest which they so much pretend to fear and show that they are ruining the Protestants and their Religion even when they so highly enveigh against Popery and Papists therefore by true Protestants ought to be avoided as Wolves and Bears designing to devour them The most remarkable passages that have happened and which first occasioned these Jealousies and fears of Introducing Arbitrary Power and Popery were transacted about 10 Years since I le mention them briefly and leave the reader to recollect who steerd then at Helme in whose Cabals those Resolutions were not only taken but by whom also they afterwards were put in Execution First His Majesties gratious Declaration for suspending all penal Laws and granting Indulgence to Dissenters the only thing to my remembrance done since the Kings Restauration that had the least tendency to the setting up Arbitrary Power or Popery and this I must confess prima facie seemed to aime at both tho neither of them was as I believe designed by the King who granted the same on no other account than for the Ease of Protestant Dissenters and upon their solicitation therefore ought rather to have been with all humility and thankfulness accepted and acknowledged as His Majesties great Grace and Favour than with such high Ingratitude turned upon the King to his prejudice and the disadvantage and dishonor of his Government It is undoubtedly in the power of the King by His Royal Prerogative to despence with the penalty of any Statute whatsoever pro hac vice upon any Emergency of State where the matter dispensed with is not malum in se but only malum quia prohibitum by granting Liscences with a non obstante of the several Statutes in force against the matter Dispensed with and so he might have granted Licences to Dissenters to meete for the Exercise of their Religion and appointed places of meeting and Parsons to Preach amongst them which the Law and former practices of his Royal Ancestors would have warranted and could never have been Questioned But to Suspend a Law is in the Nature of an Obrogation and he that can obrogate may as well assume the power of making Laws and that Prince who hath power to make one may make any Law if any Law a Law to raise Mony and Forces and that Prince that hath such Authority shall never need call a Parliament he himself having Power to raise what Mony and Force he shall think sit ergo may govern his Subjects Arbitrarily at his Royal Pleasure This was the chief Reason why the next succeeding Parliament after this Declaration was Issued tho they were willing Dissenting Protestants should have had Ease Addrest His Majesty for the Cancelling that Declaration to which Address His Majesty most gratiously was pleased to give his Royal Concession but a second ground of such Address appeared to be The Consideration the Parliament had that the said Declaration suspended all Sanguinary and Pecuniary Laws against Priests Jesuits and Papists which if continued long might silently and by degrees have Introduced Popery and caused its growth amongst us this they had great reason to suspect might be designed by some of those who advised the King thereto who now endeavour to throw the odium due to themselves for such pernicious Councils upon the King who our Law says can do no wrong Again who was it that about the same time advised the shutting up the Exchequer when so many thousands of His Majesties Loyal Subjects whole Estates and Fortunes were lodged therein for security than which no Security in England was better till this stop of Payments was prevailed for Who was it that when they had given this advice and the same was agreed unto stopt the Declaring thereof for several days till they had drawn their own Mony out of the Bankers hands well knowing such stop must ruine them and resolving they would not lose any thing themselves by what they had advised the King to doe to the utter ruine of so many of their fellow Subjects Was there ever so high a violation
550000 l. per Annum It is in my poor Judgment only altogether impossible Object I allow the Duke with such a Revenue cannot hurt us but the French King having at least Two Hundred Thousand men in Arms and a Revenue sufficient to pay them and being obliged to keep those Armies Imployed abroad to prevent their Rebelling at home he is so Zealous for Establishing Popery thoughout Christendom and Rooting out Heresie that for premoting so Meritorious a Work he will Supply our King if a Papist with Arms and Mony sufficient to carry on that Design with Success here Answ It is great folly to Imagine that the French King who knows his own Interest though it be true he neither wants Men or Mony to carry on any Design he undertakes should assist our King with either for the Uniting him and his Subjects under Arbitrary Power or any one Religion whatsoever tho Popery it self both being Destructive to his Interests and a putting Power in the hand of our King to break all that Kings Measures and prevent his making himself Universal Monark than which nothing is more by him desired and endeavoured For if once the King of England and his People were United under either the French King knows he will be able to give check to all his further prosecution of that design therefore tho he may and I believe does spend a hundred thousand pounds per annum in paying Pentioners Imployed by him or his Ministers to devide between the King and his Subjects which being his Interest to have done he will spare no charge that may Contribute to the doing thereof yet would he not give 20000 l. to make our King absolute or Unite him and his People under any one Religion whatsoever tho Popery it self For he is a wise Prince studies his Interest knows how he parts from his Mony and will dispose of none to carry on any design that may turne to his prejudice than which nothing in the World can be a greater than to have the King and his Subjects United What hurt then can his Royal Highness do his Subjects if he Succeed his Brother since there will not be left when the King dies Revenue sufficient to support the necessary Expence of his Royal Family and Government without Supplies from abroad or at home and if no Forrain Prince but the French King can and that King will not Supply him must he not then immediately call a Parliament must not the People chuse that Parliament will the People of England awakened as they now are and then will be with Fears and Jealousies of the Danger of Popery coming in upon them and loosing their Estates consisting of Abby and Monastery Lands chuse any Members to serve in those Parliaments but such as they can trust and depend upon to provide for the Security of their Livers Liberties Religion and Properties or will those Parliaments when met being equally concerned in Interest with their Electors ever give such Popish Successor any Revenue to hurt or destroy their own Interest It is Nonsence to believe they will give him a Groat till they have provided for their own and the Kingdoms security in all these particulars and they know not his Royal Highness that have so ill an opinion of him as to believe him so Irroligious so weak of Judgment or void of understanding his own Interest as to accept the Crown take the Coronation Oath if he resolve not to keep and observe the same by Governing according to Law and securing his Subjects in Peace by preserving to them their Religion as well as their Liberties and Properties His Royal Highness cannot be Ignorant of the Jealousies the Subjects of England have already of him and well knows those Jealousies will certainly increase when he comes to the Crown therefore must expect when he calls a Parliament that that Parliament when it meets will certainly tell him That having left our Church and Declared himself thereby a Papist he cannot be Trusted with the Disposing any Ecclesiastical Promotions or with any Sum of Mony that may Endanger the Kingdom by assisting the Papists nor will they suffer Persons of that Religion to come near him or his Court to Influence his Councils as we vainly Imagine So that in my poor Opinion The Kingdom under such a Prince may obtain such Laws and other Conditions for securing their Religion Liberties and Properties before they give any Mony as they would never dare to propose to or could ever hope for or expect from a King of our own Religion Besides no man that hath common sence whatsoever he says to the contrary can believe that ever his Royal Highness if he be of another Religion then that professed in this Kingdom can if he should live to wear the smperial Crown of his Realm ever hurt us though he should Design so to doe For being of a Religion to which the Generality of his Subjects have a great Aversion and Antipathy and having but a small Revenue an Inconsiderable Party and that Party Fettered with Laws and the whole Kingdom Alarmed and for their own Security Armed and in a posture to defend themselves it will be impossible for him to subdue such a Nation in such a Condition and under such Jealousies and Circumstances Nor will he be able to break through the Laws made for the Defence of our Religion more then he will to Violate those made for Security of our Liberties and Properties If after all this we shall persist in our folly and close with nothing offered except an Act for Excluding his Royal Highness go along with it then of all Nations on the face of the Earth is ours in my Opinion like to be the most Miserable For such alteration of the Succession as it is said before must be maintained by a Force and standing Army a Crown being always esteemed worth Fighting for which Force we transmit to Posterity with a desputable Title for a new Tryal of Skill like that Anciently between the Houses of York and Lancaster which every good mand must certainly Dread the thoughts of when he seriously considers that War lasted about Sixty Years cost the Kingdom its whole Treasure besides the Devastation and Destruction made throughout the same especially in the North and the many Hundred Thousands men's Lives were lost therein and yet that War was occasioned only by varying the Hand from the Children of the Duke of Clarance Third Son to the Issue of John a Gant the Fourth Legitimate Son of Henry the Fourth and no Bastardy in the Case I do not find in all my Reading that any Government throughout the World since the Reformation from Rome ever made a Law to prohibit a Successor of that Religion from Reigning over them Henry the Third of France though earnestly Impottuned by the Holy League to Exclude the King of Navar refused so to doe though that King was a Hugenot In Edward the Sixth time no Statute was made to bar a
of Property committed in any Age as this or any thing done besides this since His Majesties Restauration tending in the least to Invade the same When this was put in Execution and the Creditors of the Bankers began to sue for their Mony and they flew into Chancery for Injunctions which were denyed by the Lord Keeper Bridgeman as being contrary to Law Who was it advised His Majesty to remove his Lordship from the Seal for his tumidity Who was it that afterwards Succeeding him in that Office granted the Injunctions before denyed and continued them till he knew the Seal was like to be taken from him and then to Ingratiate himself with the Populacie dissolved the same This Stopping of Payments in the Exchequer will appear the more hanious and an act that all who are Loyal love the King and concern themselves for his Honour Princely Dignity and Royal Government must obhor if they doe but reflect back and seriously consider for what end this was done and the sad consequences that have happened to England thereupon which take as followeth Those who had advised His Majesty to Issue out the Declaration aforementioned and stop the payments out of the Exchequer had also thought it convenient that the Triple League should be broken that His Majesty should joyn his Forces which they then had advised him to raise and were afterwards Incampt on Black-heath with those of France and that the Dutch Smerna Fleet then coming home richly laden should be seised before any War with Holland Declared perhaps the most pernicious and dishonourable Act that ever Prince was put upon by his Ministers dilenda est Carthago and from whence this poor Kingdom may justly date all its late Miseries and Distractions For hereby was the Peace of all Christendome Disturbed This hath occasioned the loss of some hundred thousands of Christian lives Exhausted the Treasure of England as well as all Europe besides weakned the Protestant Interest throughout the World and strangly advanced the Growth and Power of France helpt him in all his late Conquests and made him at this day who is the Common and Grand Enemy to the Protestant Religion a terrour to all Nations about him as well as a most cruel Persecutor of all his Protestant Subjects at home of whose miseries and intollerable sufferings we have every day fresh Instances before our Eyes Whilst these Gentlemen who gave His Majesty these Advises were in his Councils and Prerogative Royal proved subservient to their private Interests it could never be thought high enough tho now they are of opinion as appears by their Actions it can never be too low nor too much exposed and brought in contempt Who was it that declared the Prerogative of the King to be Law and not only the Law but the principal part of the Law and his Royal Edicts above Law Who was it that before the sitting of the Parliament advised the Issuing of Writs for the Electing New Members to serve in the House of Commons in the rooms of those Deceased during their recess and when the Parliament met and the Commons had Voted those Elections void and ordered new Writs to be Issued for the choice of others in the rooms of those so unduly Elected and Returned Who was it that for some days refused to Seal the same declaring it to be an Intrenchment upon Prerogative and when obliged thereto by His Majesties possitive Commands went home and turned his back upon the Sealers whilst the Seal was affixing to those Writs to the end as he said that his Eyes might never behold Prerogative trampled upon by a House of Commons I shall forbear to name any persons it being fresh in every mans memory that took any kind of notice of publick transactions who were then our Premier Ministers of State and took mighty care to maintain Prerogative and advance it to the height the better to improve the same to their own Advantage But no sooner upon the Adresses of the House of Commons had His Majesty resolved to Cancel the before Mentioned Declaration and Issue out Writs for new Elections then one of those Noble Peers finding he could not deswade the King as he Endeavoured from Complying with his Parliament therein aplyed to the Commons Rigled himself into their Cabals and by subtil Insinuations stopt the Impeachment designed against him in Parliament for such his Pernitious Councels Which done he presently fell to work and plaid his Exploits in the House of Lords where being one day Privately Charged with high Ingratitude in having deserted his Master his Lordship made answer It was the King that had left him by departing from his Declaration and not he the King and Immidiately with some other Lords closed with the Mobile set up for Populer Interest and Endeavour'd in all parts of the Kingdom to possess the People with Prejudice to His Majesties Royal Person and Government on pretence that his Majesty really designed to Introduce Arbitrary Power and Popery amongst them and that they for opposing the same were removed from his Councels and all places of Trust when as if any such Intreagues were then on foot they had been the first advisers and cheif promoters thereof By these and other such like false Suggestions they fomented differences between the King and his People Created in them Jealosies and Distrusts of each other prevented the Parliaments giving His Majesty the Suplies necessary for Enabling of him to have Joyned his Arms with those of the States General and their Allyes which he declared himself ready to have done for preventing the further Growth of the Power of France and yet all that while alarmed and frightned the Subjects with daily Printing and Spreading abroad Pamphlets wherein they Represented how dangerous a Condition they were in by reason of the Increase of that Kings Power with whom they seemingly prest His Majesty to make War tho' certainly they never Intended he should so doe for if they had they would have Endeavoured to have gotten him the Sinues thereof To witt Money wherewith to have defrayd the Charge thereof and not used all their Art and Skill as they did to hinder him from the same By way of degression give me leave here to offer two Questions to serious Considerations First wither those who advised His Majesty to break the Triple League Seiz the Dutch Smirna Fleet before a War with Holland was declared Suspend all his Penal Lawes stop payments out of his Exchequer and Joine his Arms with those of the French King against the States General of the United Provinces may not reasonably and without breach of Charity be suspected to have been at the time of such advice given Pentioners of France and whether if any thing done since His Majesties most happy Restauration ever had any tendency towards the Introducing of Arbitrary Power and Popery into this Kingdom It was not His Majesties proceedings upon those Councils 2ly His Mejesty upon the Adresses and advice of his Parliament