will address my self for it Thus you see how fully I have opened my mind to you in this matter I have gone over a great deal of ground in as few Words as is possible because hints I know are enough for you I thank God these Considerations do fully satisfy me and I will be infinitely joyed if they have the same effect on you I am yours THis Letter came to London with the return of the first Post after his late Majesties Papers were sent into the Countrey some that saw it liked it well and wished to have it publick and the rather because the Writer did not so entirely consine himself to the Reasons that were in those Papers but took the whole Controversy to task in a little compass and yet with a great variety of Reflections And this way of examining the whole Matter without following those Papers word for word or the finding more fault than the common concern of this Cause required seemed more aggreeing to the respect that is due to the Dead and more particularly to the Memory of so great a Prince but other Considerations made it not so easy nor so adviseable to procure a License for the Printing this Letter it has been kept in private hands till now those who have boasted much of the Shortness of the late Kings Papers and of the length of the Answers that have been made to them will not find so great a disproportion between them and this Answer to them FINIS REASONS Against the Repealing the ACTS of PARLIAMENT Concerning the TEST Humbly offered to the Consideration of the Members of both Houses at their next Meeting On the 28th of April 1687. Printed in the Year 1687. REASONS against the Repealing the Acts of Parliament concerning the TEST Humbly offered to the consideration of the Members of both Houses at their next Meeting on the 28th of April 1687. I IF the just apprehensions of the Danger of Popery gave the Birth to the two Laws for the two Tests the one with relation to all publick Emploiments in 73. and the other with relation to the Constitution of our Parliaments for the future in 78. the present time and conjuncture does not seem so proper for repealing them unless it can be imagined that the danger of Popery is now so much less than it was formerly that we need be no more on our guard against it We had a King when these Laws were enacted who as he declared himself to be of the Church of England by receiving the Sacrament four times a year in it so in all his Speeches to his Parliaments and in all his Declarations to his Subjects he repeated the assurances of his firmness to the Protestant Religion so solemnly and frequently that if the saying a thing often gives just reason to believe it we had as much reason as ever People had to depend upon him and yet for all that it was thought necessary to fortify those assurances with Laws and it is not easy to imagin why we should throw away those when we have a Prince that is not only of another Religion himself but that has expressed so much steadiness in it and so much zeal for it that one would think we should rather now seek a further security than throw away that which we already have II. Our King has given such Testimonies of his Zeal for his Religion that we see among all his other Royal Qualities there is none for which he desires and deserves to be so much admired Since even the passion of Glory of making himself the terrour of all Europe and the Arbiter of Christendom which as it is natural to all Princes so must it be most particularly so to one of his Martial and Noble Temper yields to his Zeal for his Church and that he in whom we might have hoped to see our Edward the third or our Henry the 5th revived chooses rather to merit the heightning his degree of Glory in another World than to acquire all the Lawrels and Conquests that this low and vile World can give him and that instead of making himself a terrour to all his Neighbours he is contented with the humble Glory of being a terrour to his own People so that instead of the great Figure which this Reign might make in the World all the news of England is now only concerning the practises on some fearful Mercenaries These things shew that His Majesty is so possessed with his Religion that this cannot suffer us to think that there is at present no danger from Popery III. It does not appear by what we see either abroad or at home that Popery has so changed its nature that we have less reason to be afraid of it at present than we had in former times It might be thought ill nature to go so far back as to the Councils of the Lateran that decreed the extirpation of Hereticks with severe Sanctions on those Princes that failed in their Duty of being the Hangmen of the Inquisitors or to the Council of Constance that decreed that Princes were not bound to keep their faith to Hereticks thô it must be acknowledged that we have extraordinary Memories if we can forget such things and more extraordinary Understandings if we do not make some inferences from them I will not stand upon such inconsiderable Trifles as the Gunpowder Plot or the Massacre of Ireland but I will take the liberty to reflect a little on what that Church has done since those Laws were made to give us kinder and softer thoughts of them and to make us the less apprehensive of them VVe see before our eyes what they have done and are still doing in France and what feeble things Edicts Coronation Oaths Laws and Promises repeated over and over again prove to be where that Religion prevails and Louis le Grand makes not so contemptible a Figure in that Church or in our Court as to make us think that his example may not be proposed as a Pattern as well as his aid may be offered for an encouragement to act the same things in England that he is now doing with so much applause in France and it may be perhaps the rather desired from hence to put him a little in countenance when so great a King as ours is willing to forget himself so far as to copy after him and to depend upon him so that as the Doctrine and Principles of that Church must be still the same in all Ages and Places since its chief pretension is that it is infallible it is no unreasonable thing for us to be afraid of those who will be easily induced to burn us a little here when they are told that such fervent zeal will save them a more lasting burning hereafter and will perhaps quit all scores so entirely that they may hope scarce to endure a Singing in Purgatory for all their other Sins IV. If the severest Order of the Church of Rome that has breathed out nothing
their Subjects reason to think that they forget their promises as soon as the turn is served for which they were made this will be too prevailing a temptation on the Subjects to mind the Princes promise as little as it seems he himself does and will force them to conclude that the truth of the Prince is not so Absolute as it seems he fancies his power to be XIII Here is not only a repealing of a great many Lawes and established Oaths and Tests but by the Exercise of the Absolute Power a new Oath is imposed which was never pretended to by the Crown in any former time and as the Oath is created by this Absolute Power so it seems the Absolute Power must be supported by this Oath since one branch of it is an obligation to Maintain His Majesty and his Lawfull Successors in the exercise of this their Absolute Power and Authority against all deadly which I suppose is Scotch for Mortalls now to Impose so hard a yoke as this Absolute Power on the Subjects seems no small stretch but it is a wonderfull exercise of it to oblige the Subjects to defend this it had been more modest if they had been only bound to bear it and submit to it but it is a terrible thing so far to extinguish all the remnants of naturall Liberty or of a legall Government as to oblige the Subjects by Oath to maintain the exercise of this which plainly must destroy themselves for the short execution by the Bow-strings of Turkey or by sending orders to men to return in their heads being an exercise of this Absolute Power it is a litle hard to make men swear to maintain the King in it and if that Kingdom has suffered so much by the many Oaths that have been in use among them as is marked in this Proclamation I am affraid this new Oath will not much mend the matter XIV Yet after all there is some Comfort his Majesty assures them he will use no Violence nor force nor any Invincible Necessity to any man on the account of his Persuasion It were too great a want of respect to fancy that a time may come in which even this may be remembred full as well as the Promises that were made to the Parliament after His Majesty came to the Crown I do not I confess apprehend that for I see here so great a caution used in the choice of these words that it is plain very great Severities may very well consist with them It is clear that the generall words of Violence and Force are to be determined by these last of Invincible Necessity so that the King does only promise to lay no Invincible Necessity on his Subjects but for all Necessities that are not Invincible it seems they must expect to bear a large share of them Disgraces want of Imployments Fines and Imprisonments and even Death it self are all Vincible things to a man of a firmness of mind so that the Violences of torture the Furies of Dragoons and some of the Methods now practised in France perhaps may be Included within this Promise since these seem almost Invincible to humane nature if it is not fortified with an Extraordinary measure of Grace but as to all other things His Majesty binds himself up from no part of the Exercise of his Absolute Power by this Promise XV. His Majesty orders this to go Immediately to the Great Seal without passing thro the other Seals now since this is counter-signed by the Secretary in whose hands the Signet is there was no other step to be made but thro the Privy Seal so I must own I have a great curiosity of knowing his Character in whose hands the Privy Seal is at present for it seems his Conscience is not so very supple as the Chancellors and the Secretaryes are but it is very likely if he does not quickly change his mind the Privy Seal at least will very quickly change its Keeper and I am sorry to hear that the L. Chancellor and the Secretary have not another Brother to fill this post that so the guilt of the ruin of that Nation may lie on one single Family and that there may be no others involved in it XVI Upon the whole matter many smaller things being waved it being extream unpleasant to find fault where one has all possible dispositions to pay all respect we here in England see what we must look for A Parliament in Scotland was tryed but it proved a little Stubborn and now Absolute Power comes to set all right so when the Closetting has gone round so that Noses are counted we may perhaps see a Parliament here but if it chances to be untoward and not to obey without Reserve then our Reverend Iudges will copy from Scotland and will not only tell us of the Kings Imperial Power but will discover to us this new Mystery of Absolute Power to which we are all bound to obey without Reserve These Reflexions refer in so many places to some words in the Proclamation that it was thought necessary to set them near one another that the Reader may be able to Judge whether he is deceived by any false Quotations or not By the King. A PROCLAMATION JAMES R. JAMES the Seventh by the Grace of God King of Scotland England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c To all and sundry our good Subjects whom these presents do or may concern Greeting We having taken into Our Royal Consideration the many and great inconveniencies which have happened to that Our Ancient Kingdom of Scotland of late years through the different perswasions in the Christian Religion and the great Heats and Animosities amongst the several Professors thereof to the ruin and decay of Trade wasting of Lands extinguishing of Charity contempt of the Royal Power and converting of true Religion and the Fear of GOD into Animosities Names Factions and sometimes into Sacriledge and Treason And being resolved as much as in Us lyes to unite the Hearts and Affections of Our Subjects to GOD in Religion to Us in Loyalty and to their Neighbours in Christian Love and Charity Have therefore thought fit to Grant and by Our Souveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power which all Our Subjects are to obey without Reserve Do hereby give and grant Our Royal Toleration to the several Professors of the Christian Religion after-named with and under the several Conditions Restrictions and Limitations after-mentioned In the first place We allow and tolerate the Moderate Presbyterians to Meet in their Private Houses and there to hear all such Ministers as either have or are willing to accept of Our Indulgence allanerly and none other and that there be not any thing said or done contrary to the Well and Peace of Our Reign Seditious or Treasonable under the highest Pains these Crimes will import nor are they to presume to Build Meeting-Houses or to use Out-Houses or Barns but only to exercise in their Private Houses as
the Master of them he can indeed make a truck for God or let them so low that God shall be an easy Landlord but he cannot alter Gods Property nor translate the Right that is in him to Sacrilegious Laymen and Hereticks XI One of the Effects of this Declaration will be the setting on foot a new run of Addresses over the Nation for there is nothing how Impudent and base soever of which the abject flattery of a Slavish Spirit is not capable It must be confest to the reproach of the Age that all those strains of flattery among the Romans that Tacitus sets forth with so mueh just Scorn are modest things compared to what this Nation has produced within these seven years only if our Flattery has come short of the Refinedness of the Romans it has exceeded theirs as much in its loathed Fulsomness The late King set out a Declaration in which he gave the most solemn Assurances possible of his adhering to the Church of England and to the Religion established by Law and of his Resolution to have Frequent Parliaments upon which the whole Nation fell as it were into Raptures of Joy and Flattery but tho he lived four Years after that he called no Parliament notwithstanding the Law for Triennial Parliaments and the manner of his Death and the Papers printed after his Death in his Name have sufficiently shewed that he was equally sincere in both those Assurances that he gave as well in that Relating to Religion as in that other Relating to Frequent Parliaments yet upon his Death a new set of Addresses appeared in which all that Flattery could Invent was brought forth in the Commendations of a Prince to whose Memory the greatest kindness can be done is to forget him and because his present Majesty upon his coming to the Throne gave some very general Promise of Maintaining the Church of England this was magnified in so Extravagant a strain as if it had been a Security greater than any that the Law could give tho by the regard that the King has both to it and to the Laws it appears that he is resolved to maintain both equally since then the Nation has already made it self sufficiently ridiculous both to the present and to all succeeding Ages it is time that at last men should grow weary and become ashamed of their Folly. XII The Nonconformists are now invited to set an Example to the rest and they who have valued themselves hitherto upon their Opposition to Popery and that have quarrelled with the Church of England for some small Approaches to it in a few Ceremonies are now solicited to rejoyce because the Laws that secure us against it are all plucked up since they enjoy at present and during pleasure leave to meet together It is natural for all men to love to be set at ease especially in the matters of their Consciences but it is visible that those who allow them this favour do it with no other design but that under a pretence of a General Toleration they may Introduce a Religion which must persecute all equally it is likewise apparent how much they are hated and how much they have been persecuted by the Instigation of those who now Court them and who have now no game that is more promising than the engaging them and the Church of England into new Quarrels and as for the Promises now made to them it cannot be supposed that they will be more lasting than those that were made some time ago to the Church of England who had both a better Title in Law and greater Merit upon the Crown to assure them that they should be well used than these can pretend to The Nation has scarce forgiven some of the Church of England the Persecution into which they have suffered themselves to be cosened tho now that they see Popery barefaced the Stand that they have made and the vigorous Opposition that they have given to it is that which makes all men willing to forget what is past and raises again the Glory of a Church that was not a little stained by the Indiscretion and Weakness of those that were too apt to believe and hope and so suffered themselves to be made a Property to those who would now make them a Sacrifice The Sufferings of the Nonconformists and the Fury that the Popish Party expressed against them had recommended them so much to the Compassions of the Nation and had given them so just a pretension to favour in a better time that it will look like a curse of God upon them if a few men whom the Court has gained to betray them can have such an ill Influence upon them as to make them throw away all that Merit and those Compassions which their Sufferings have procured them and to go and court those who are only seemingly kind to them that they may destroy both them and us They must remember that as the Church of England is the only Establishment that our Religion has by Law so it is the main body of the Nation and all the Sects are but small and stragling parties and if the Legal Settlement of the Church is dissolved and that body is once broken these lesser bodies will be all at Mercy and it is an easy thing to define what the Mercies of the Church of Rome are XIII But tho it must be confessed that the Nonconformists are still under some Temptations to receive every thing that gives them present ease with a little too much kindness since they lie exposed to many severe Laws of which they have of late felt the weight very heavily and as they are men and some of them as ill Natured men as other people so it is no wonder if upon the first surprises of the Declaration they are a little delighted to see the Church of England after all its Services and Submissions to the Court so much mortified by it so that taking all together it will not be strange if they commit some Follies upon this occasion Yet on the other hand it passes all imagination to see some of the Church of England especially those whose Natures we know are so particularly sharpned in the point of Persecution chiefly when it is levelled against the Dissenters rejoyce at this Declaration and make Addresses upon it It is hard to think that they have attained to so high a pitch of Christian Charity as to thank those who do now despitefully use them and that as an earnest that within a little while they will persecute them This will be an Original and a Master piece in Flattery which must needs draw the last degrees of Contempt on such as are capable of so abject and sordid a Compliance and that not only from all the true Members of the Church of England but likewise from those of the Church of Rome it self for every man is apt to esteem an Enemy that is brave even in his Misfortunes as much as he despises those
put the late King out of the list of Protestant Kings so that this Reproach lies wholly on the King's Father and his Grand-father It is a little surprising after all the Eloquence that has been Imployed to raise the Character of the late Martyr to so high a pitch that one of his Sons Secretaries should set it under his hand in a letter that he pretends is written by the King's Commands that he made it a Maxime to undo his People The Writer of this Letter should have avoided the mentioning of fines since it is not so long since both He and his Brother valued themselves on a point that they carried in the Council of Scotland that Husbands should be fined for their wives not going to Church tho it was not founded on any Law. And of all Men living he ought to be the last that should speak of the taking away Estates who got a very fair one during the present Reign by an Act of Parliament that Attainted a Gentleman in a Method as new as his Stile is Upon this ground that two Privy Councellours declared they believed him guilty He will hardly find among all the Maximes of those Protestant Persecuting Kings any one that will Justify this It seems the New Stile is not very Copious in Words since Doctrine is three times repeated in so short a Letter He tells them that their Doctrine must tend to cause all the subjects to walk obediently now by obediently in this Stile is to obey the Absolute Pomer without reserve for to obey according to Law would pass now for a Crime this being then his meaning it is probable that the Encouragements which are necessary to make His Majesty continue the happiness of his Subjects will not be so very great as to Merit the perpetuating this favour There is with this a heavy charge laid upon them as to their practice that it must be such as shall be most pleasing to His Majesty for certainly that can only be by their turning Papists since a Prince that is so zealous for his Religion as His Majesty is cannot be so well pleased with any other thing as with this Their concurring with the King to remove the Penal Laws comes over again for tho Repetitions are Impertinencies in the Common Stile they are Flowers in the new one In Conclusion he tells them that the King expects that they will continue their prayers for him yet this does not agree too well with a Catholick Zeal for the prayers of Damned Hereticks cannot be worth the asking for the third time he tells them to look well to their Doctrine now this is a little ambiguous for it may either signify that they should study the Controversies well so as to be able to defend their Doctrine solidly or that they should so mince it that nothing may fall from them in their Sermons against Popery this will be indeed a looking to their Doctrine but I do not know whether it will be thought a looking well to it or not He adds that their Example be Influential I confess this hard new Word frighted me I suppose the meaning of it is that their practice may be such as that it may have an Influence on others yet there are both good and bad Influences a good Influence will be the animating the people to a Zeal for their Religion and a bad one will be the slackning and sofning of that Zeal A little more Clearness here had not been amiss As for the last Words of this Letter that all these are his Majesty's Commands it is very hard for me to bring my self to believe them For certainly he has more Piety for the Memory of the late Martyr and more regard both to himself to his children and to his people than to have ever given any such commands In order to the communicating this Piece of Elegance to the World I wish the Translating it into French were recommended to Mr. d' Albeville that it may appear whether the Secretary Stile will look better in his Irish French than it does now in the Scotch English of him who penne dit FINIS AN ANSWER To A PAPER Printed with Allowance Entitled A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty I. THe Accusing the Church of England of Want of Loyalty or the putting it to a new Test after so fresh a one with relation to His Majesty argues a high degree of Confidence in him who undertakes it She knew well what were the Doctrines and Practices of those of the Roman Church with Relation to Hereticks and yet She was so true to her Loyalty that She shut her eyes on all the Temptations that so just a fear could raise in her and She set her self to support His Majesties Right of Succession with so much Zeal that She thereby not only put her self in the power of her Enemies but She has also exposed her self to the Scorn of those who insult over her in her Misfortune She lost the Affections even of many of her own Children who thought that her Zeal for an Interest which was then so much decry'd was a little too fervent and all those who judged severely of the proceedings thought that the Opposition which She made to the side that then went so high had more Heat than Decency in it And indeed all this was so very Extraordinary that if She was not acted by a principle of Conscience Shâ— could make no Excuse for her conductâ— There appeared such peculiar Marks of Affection and Heartiness at every time that the Duke was named whether in Drinking his Health or upon graver Occasions that it seemed affected and when the late King himself whose Word they took that he was a Protestant was spoke of but coldly the very Name of the Duke set her Children all on fire this made many conclude that they were ready to Sacrifice all to him for indeed their behaviour was inflamed with so much Heat that the greater part of the Nation believed they waited for a fit opportunity to declare themselves Faith in Jesus Christ was not a more frequent Subject of the Sermons of many than Loyalty and the Right of the Succession to the Crown the Heat that appeared in the Pulpit and the Learning that was in their Books on these Subjects and the Eloquent Strains that were in their Addresses were all Originals and made the World conclude that whatever might be laid to their charge they should never be accused of any want of Loyalty at least in this King's time while the remembrance of so signal a service was so fresh When His Majesty came to the Crown these men did so entirely depend on the Promise that he made to maintain the Church of England that the doubting of the performance appeared to them the worst sort of Infidelity They believed that in His Majesty the Hero and the King would be too strong for the Papist and when any one told them How weak a tie the Faith of a
Princely Nobleness of the Successors whom we have in view than those Arts of Craft and Violence to which we see their Tempers carry them even so early before it is yet time to show themselves The Temper of the English Nation the Heroïcal Vertues of those whom we have in our Eyes but above all our most holy Religion which instead of Revenge and Cruelty inspires us with Charity and Mercy even for Enemies are all such things as may take from the Gentlemen of that Religion all sad apprehensions unless they raise a Storm against themselves and provoke the Iustice of the Nation to such a degree that the Successors may find it necessary to be just even when their own Inclinations would rather carry them to shew Mercy In short they need fear nothing but what they create to themselves so that all this stir that they keep for their own Safety looks too like the securing to themselves Pardons for the Crimes that they intend to commit VIII I know it is objected as no small prejudice against these Laws that the very making of them discovered a particular Malignity against His Majesty and therefore it is ill Manners to speak for them The first had perhaps an Eye at his being then Admiral and the last was possibly levelled at him thô when that was discovered he was excepted out of it by a special Proviso And as for that which past in 73 I hope it is not forgot that it was enacted by that Loyal Parliament that had setled both the Prerogative of the Crown and the Rites of the Church and that had given the King more Money than all the Parliaments of England had ever done in all former Times A Parliament that had indeed some Disputes with the King but upon the first step that he made with relation to Religion or Safety they shewed how ready they were to forget all that was past as appeared by their Behaviour after the Triple Alliance And in 73 thô they had great cause given them to dislike the Dutch war especially the strange beginning of it upon the Smirna Fleet and the stopping the Exchequer the Declaration for Toleration and the writs for the Members of the House were Matters of hard Digestion yet no sooner did the King give them this new Assurance for their Religion then thô they had very great Reasons given them to be jealous of the war yet since the King was engaged they gave him 1200000 Pounds for carrying it on and they thought they had no ill Penniworths for their Money when they carried home with them to their Countreys this new Security for their Religion which we are desired now to throw up and which the Reverend Iudges have already thrown out as a Law out of date If this had carried in it any new piece of Severity their Complaints might be just but they are extream tender if they are so uneasy under a Law that only gives them Leisure and Opportunities to live at home And the last Test which was intended only for shutting them out from a share in the Legislative Body appears to be so just that one is rather amased to find that it was so long a doing than that it was done at last and since it is done it is a great presumption on our Understandings to think that we should be willing to part with it If it was not sooner done it was because there was not such cause given for Jealousy to work upon but what has appeared since that time and what has been printed in his late Majesties name shews the World now that the Iealousies which occasioned those Laws were not so ill grounded as some well meaning Men perhaps then believed them to be But there are some times in which all Mens Eyes come to be opened IX I am told some think it is very indecent to have a Test for our Parliaments in which the King's Religion is accused of Idolatry but if this reason is good in this particular it will be full as good against several of the Articles of our Church and many of the Homilies If the Church and Religion of this Nation is so formed by Law that the King's Religion is declared over and over again to be Idolatrous what help is there for it It is no other than it was when His Majesty was Crowned and Swore to maintain our Laws I hope none will be wanting in all possible respect to his sacred Person and as we ought to be infinitly sorry to find him engaged in a Religion which we must believe Idolatrous so we are far from the ill manners of reflecting on his Person or calling him an Idolater for as every Man that reports a Lye is not for that to be called a Lyar so thô the ordering the Intention and the prejudice of a mispersuasion are such abatements that we will not rashly take on us to call every Man of the Church of Rome an Idolater yet on the other hand we can never lay down our Charge against the Church of Rome as guilty of Idolatry unless at the same time we part with our Religion X. Others give us a strange sort of Argument to perswade us to part with the Test they say the King must imploy his Popish Subjects for he can trust no other and he is so assured of their Fidelity to him that we need apprehend no Danger from them This is an odd Method to work on us to let in a sort of People to the Parliament and Government since the King cannot trust us but will depend on them so that as soon as this Law is repealed they must have all the Imployments and have the whole power of the Nation lodged in their hands this seems a little too gross to impose even on Irishmen The King saw for many Years together with how much Zeal both the Clergy and many of the Gentry appeared for his Interests and if there is now a Melancholy Damp on their Spirits the King can dissipate it when he will and as the Church of England is a Body that will never rebel against him so any Sullenness under which the late Administration of Affairs has brought them would soon vanish if the King would be pleas'd to remember a little what he has so often promised not only in Publick but in Private and would be contented with the Excercise of his own Religion without imbroiling his whole Affairs because F. Petre will have it so and it tempts Englishmen to more than ordinary degrees of Rage against a sort of Men who it seems can infuse in a Prince born with the highest sense of Honour possible Projects to which without doing some Violence to his own Royal Nature he could not so much as hearken to if his Religion did not so fatally mufle him up in a blind Obedience But if we are so unhappy that Priests can so disguise Matters as to mislead a Prince who without their ill Influences would be the most Glorious Monarch of
said is In the mean time it is Our Royal Will and Pleasure that Field Conventicles and such as Preach or Exercise at them or who shall any wayâ— assist or connive at them shall be prosecuted according to the utmost Severity of our Laws made against them seeing from these Rendezvouzes of Rebellion so much Disorder hath proceeded and so much Disturbance to the Government and for which after this Our Royal Indulgence for tender Consciences there is no excuse left In like manner we do hereby tolerate Quakers to meet and exercise in their Form in any Place or Places appointed for their Worship And considering the Severe and Cruel Laws made against Roman Catholicks therein called Papists in the Minority of Our Royal Grand Father of Glorious Memory without His Consent and contrary to the Duty of good Subjects by His Regents and other Enemies to their Lawful Soveraign Our Royal Great Grand Mother Queen Mary of blessed and pious Memory wherein under the pretence of Religion they cloathed the worst of Treasons Factions and Usurpations and made these Laws not as against the Enemies of GOD but their own which Laws have still been continued of course without design of executing them or any of them ad terrorem only on Supposition that the Papists relying on an External Power were incapable of Duty and true Allegeance to their Natural Soveraigns and Rightful Monarchs We of Our certain Knowledge and long Experience knowing that the Catholicks as it is their Principle to be Good Christians so it is to be dutiful Subjects and that they have likewise on all occasions shewn themselves Good and faithfull Subjects to Us and Our Royal Predecessors by hazarding and many of them actually losing their Lives and Fortunes in their Defence though of another Religion the Maintenance of their Authority against the Violences and Treasons of the most violent Abettors of these Laws Do therefore with Advice and Consent of Our Privy Council by Our Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power aforesaid Suspend Stop and disable all Laws or Acts of Parliament Customs or Constitutions made or executed against any of our Roman-Catholick Subjects in any time past to all Intents and Purposes making void all Prohibitions therein mentioned Pains or Penalties therein ordained to be inflicted so that they shall in all things be as free in all Respects as any of Our Protestant Subjects whatsoever not only to exercise their Religion but to enjoy all Offices Benefices and others which we shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming Nevertheless it is Our Will and Pleasure and we do hereby command all Catholicks at their highest Pains only to exercise their Religious Worship in Houses or Chappels and that they presume not to Preach in the open Fields or to invade the Protestant Churches by force under the pains aforesaid to be inflicted upon the Offenders respectively nor shall they presume to make Publick Processions in the High-streets of any of Our Royal Burghs under the Pains above-mentioned And whereas the Obedience and Service of Our Good Subjects is due to Us by their Allegiance and Our Soveraignty and that no Law Custom or Constitution Difference in Religion or other Impediment whatsoever can exempt or discharge the Subjects from their Native Obligations and Duty to the Crown or hinder Us fiom Protecting and Employing them according to their several Capacities and Our Royal Pleasure nor Restrain Us from Conferring Heretable Rights and Priviledges upon them or vacuate or annul these Rights Heretable when they are made or conferred And likewise considering that some Oaths are capable of being wrested by Men of sinistrous Intentions a practice in that Kingdom fatal to Religion as it was to Loyalty Do therefore with Advice and Consent aforesaid cass annull and Discharge all Oaths whatsoever by which any of Our Subjects are incapacitated or disabled from holding Places or Offices in Our said Kingdom or enjoying their Hereditary Rights and Priviledges discharging the same to be taken or given in any time coming without our special Warrant and Consent under the pains due to the contempt of Our Royal Commands and Authority And to this effect we do by Our Royal Authority aforesaid stop disable and dispense with all Laws enjoyning the said Oaths Tests or any of them particularly the first Act of the first Session of the first Parliament of King Charles the Second the eleventh Act of the foresaid Session of the foresaid Parliament the sixth Act of the third Parliament of the said King Charles the twenty first and twenty fifth Acts of that Parliament and the thirteenth Act of the first Session of Our late Parliament in so far allanerly as concerns the taking the Oaths or Tests therein prescribed and all others as well not mentioned as mentioned and that in place of them all Our good Subjects or such of them as We or Our Privy Council shall require so to do shall take and swear the following Oath allanerly I A. B. do acknowledge testifie and declare that JAMES the Seventh by the Grace of God King of Scotland England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. is rightful King and Supream Governour of these Realms and over all Persons therein and that it is unlawful for Subjects on any pretence or for any cause whatsoever to rise in Arms against Him or any Commissionated by Him and that I shall never so rise in Arms nor assist any who shall so do and that I shall never resist â—is Power or Authority nor ever oppose his Authority to his Person as I shall answer to God but shall to the utmost of my power Assist Defend and Maintain Him His Heirs and lawful Successors in the exercise of their ABSOLUTE POWER and Authority against all Deadly So help me God. And seeing many of Our good Subjects have before Our Pleasure in these Matters was made publick incurred the Guilt appointed by the Acts of Parliament above-mentioned or others We by Our Authority and Absolute Power and Prerogative Royal above-mentioned of Our certain Knowledge and innate Mercy Give Our ample and full Indemnity to all those of the Roman-Catholick or Popish Religion for all things by them done contrary to Our Laws or Acts of Parliament made in any time past relating to their Religion the Worship and Exercise thereof or for being Papists Jesuits or Traffickers for hearing or saying of Mass concealing of Priests or Jesuits breeding their Children Catholicks at home or abroad or any other thing Rite or Doctrine said performed or maintained by them or any of them And likewise for holding or taking of Places Employments or Offices contrary to any Law or Constitution Advices given to Us or Our Council Actions done or generally any thing performed or said against the known Laws of that Our Ancient Kingdom Excepting always from this Our Royal Indemnity all Murders Assassinations Thefts and such like other Crimes which never used to be comprehended in Our
General Acts of Indemnity And we command and require all Our Judges or others concerned to explain this in the most Ample Sense Meaning Acts of Indemnity at any time have contained Declaring this shall be as good to every one concerned as if they had Our Royal Pardon Remission under Our Great Seal of that Kingdom And likewise indemnifying Our Protestant Subjects from all Pains and Penalties due for hearing or Preaching in Houses Providing there be no Treasonable Speeches uttered in the said Conventicles by them in which case the Law is only to take place against the Guilty and none other present Providing also that they Reveal to any of Our Council the Guilt so committed As also excepting all Fines or Effects of Sentences already given And likewise Indemnifying fully and freely all Quakers for their Meetings and Worship in all time past preceding the Publication of these Presents And we doubt not but Our Protestant Subjects will give their Assistance and Concourse hereunto on all occasions in their respective Capacities In consideration whereof and the ease those of Our Religion and others may have hereby and for the Encouragement of Our Protestant Bishops and the Regular Clergy and such as have hitherto lived orderly We think fit to declare that it never was Our Principle nor will We ever suffer Violence to be offered to any Mans Conscience nor will We use force or Invincible Necessity against any Man on the Account of his Perswasion nor the Protestant Religion but will protect Our Bishops and other Ministers in their Functions Rights and Properties and all Our Protestant Subjects in the free Exercise of their Protestant Religion in the Churches And that We will and hereby Promise on Our Royal Word to maintain the Possessors of Church Lands formerly belonging to Abbays or other Churches of the Catholick Religion in their full and free Possession and Right according to Our Laws and Acts of Parliament in that behalf in all time coming And We will imploy indifferently all our Subjects of all Perswasions so as none shall meet with any Discouragement on the account of his Religion but be advanced and esteemed by Us according to their several Capacities and Qualifications so long as We find Charity and Unity maintained And if any Animosities shall arise as We hope in God there will not We will shew the severest Effects of Our Royal Displeasure against the Beginners or Fomenters thereof seeing thereby Our Subjects may be deprived of this general Ease and Satisfaction We intend to all of them whose Happiness Prosperity Wealth and Safety is so much Our Royal Care that we will leave nothing undone which may procure these Blessings for them And lastly to the End all Our good Subjects may have Notice of this Our Royal Will and Pleasure we do hereby command Our Lyon King at Arms and his Brethern Heraulds Macers Pursevants and Messengers at Arms to make timous Proclamation thereof at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh And besides the Printing and Publishing of this Our Royal Proclamation it is Our express Will and Pleasure that the same be past under the great Seal of that Our Kingdom per saltum without passing any other Seal or Register In Order whereunto this shall be to the Directors of Our Chancellary and their Deputes for writing the same and to Our Chancellor for causing our Great Seal aforesaid to be appended thereunto a sufficient Warrand Given at Our Court at Whitehal the twelfth day of Febr. 168â— and of Our Reign the third year By His Majesties Command MELFORT God save the King. FINIS A LETTER Containing some REFLECTIONS On His MAJESTIES DECLARATION For LIBERTY of CONSCIENCE Dated the Fourth of April 1687. SIR I. I Thank you for the Favour of sending me the late Declaration that His Majesty has granted for Liberty of Conscience I confess I longed for it with great Impatience and was surprised to find it so different from the Scotch Pattern for I imagined that it was to be set to the second part of the same tune nor can I see why the Penners of this have sunk so much in their stile for I suppose the same men penned both I expected to have seen the Imperial Language of Absolute Power to which all the Subjects are to obey without reserve and of the cassing annulling the stopping and disabling of Laws set forth in the Preamble and body of this Declaration whereas those dreadful words are not to be found here for instead of repealing the Laws His Majesty pretends by this only to suspend them and tho in effect this amounts to a repeal yet it must be confessed that the words are softer Now since the Absolute Power to which His Majesty pretends in Scotland is not founded on such poor things as Law for that would look as if it were the gift of the people but on the Divine Authority which is supposed to be delegated to His Majesty this may be as well claimed in England as it was in Scotland and the pretension to Absolute Power is so great a thing that since His Majesty thought fit once to claim it he is little beholding to those that make him fall so much in his Language especially since both these Declarations have appeared in our Gazettes so that as we see what is done in Scotland we know from hence what is in some peoples hearts and what we may expect in England II. His Majesty tells his people that the perfect Injoyment of their Property has never been in any Case invaded by him since his coming to the Crown This is indeed matter of great Incouragement to all good Subjects for it lets them see that such Invasions as have been made on Property have been done without His Majesties knowledge so that no doubt the continuing to levy the Customes and the Additional Excise which had been granted only during the late Kings Life before the Parliament could meet to renew the Grant was done without His Majesties knowledge the many Violences committed not only by Soldiers but Officers in all the Parts of England which are severe Invasions on Property have been all without His Majesties knowledge and since the first Branch of Property is the Right that a man has to his Life the strange Essay of Mahometan Government that was shewed at Taunton and the no less strange proceedings of the present Lord Chancellour in his Circuit after the Rebellion which are very justly called His Campagne for it was an open Act of Hostility to all Law and for which and other Services of the like nature it is believed he has had the reward of the Great Seal and the Executions of those who have left their Colours which being founded on no Law are no other than so many Murders all these I say are as we are sure Invasions on Property but since the King tells us that no such Invasions have been made since he came to the Crown we must conclude that all these things have
fallen out without his Privity And if a standing Army in time of Peace has been ever lookt on by this Nation as an Attempt upon the whole Property of the Nation in gross one must conclude that even this is done without His Majesties knowledge III. His Majesty expresses his Charity for us in a kind wish that we were all Members of the Catholick Church in return to which we offer up daily our most earnest prayers for him that he may become a Member of the truly Catholick Church for Wishes and Prayers do no hurt on no side but His Majesty adds that it has ever been his Opinion that Conscience ought not to be constrained nor people forced in matters of meer Religion We are very happy if this continues to be always his sense but we are sure in this he is no obedient Member of that which he means by the Catholick Church for it has over and over again decreed the Extirpation of Hereticks It encourages Princes to it by the Offer of the Pardon of their Sins it threatens them to it by denouncing to them not only the Judgments of God but that which is more sensible the loss of their Dominions and it seems they intend to make us know that part of their Doctrine even before we come to feel it since tho some of that Communion would take away the Horror which the Fourth Council of the Lateran gives us in which these things were decreed by denying it to be a General Council and rejecting the Authority of those Canons yet the most learned of all the Apostates that has fallen to them from our Church has so lately given up this Plea and has so formally acknowledged the Authority of that Council and of its Canons that it seems they think they are bound to this piece of fair dealing of warning us before hand of our Danger It is true Bellarmin sayes The Church does not always execute her Power of deposing Heretical Princes tho she always retains it one reason that he assigns is because she is not at all times able to put it in execution so the same reason may perhaps make it appear unadviseable to extirpate Hereticks because that at present it cannot be done but the Right remains entire and is put in execution in such an unrelenting manner in all places where that Religion prevails that it has a very ill Grace to see any Member of that Church speak in this strain and when neither the Policy of France nor the Greatness of their Monarch nor yet the Interests of the Emperour joyned to the Gentleness of his own temper could withstand these Bloody Councils that are indeed parts of that Religion we can see no reason to induce us to believe that a Toleration of Religion is proposed with any other design but either to divide us or to lay us asleep till it is time to give the Alarm for destroying us IV. If all the Endeavours that have been used in the last four Reigns for bringing the Subjects of this Kingdom to a Unity in Religion have been ineffectual as His Maj. says we know to whom we owe both the first beginnings and the progress of the Divisions among our selves the Gentleness of Q. Elisabeth's Government and the numbers of those that adhered to the Church of Rome made it scarce possible to put an end to that Party during her Reign which has been ever since restless and has had credit enough at Court during the three last Reigns not only to support it self but to distract us and to divert us from apprehending the danger of being swallowed up by them by fomenting our own Differences and by setting on either a Toleration or a Persecution as it has hapned to serve their Interests It is not so very long since that nothing was to be heard at Court but the supporting the Church of England and the Extirpating all the Nonconformists and it were easy to name the persons if it were decent that had this ever in their Mouths but now all is turned round again the Church of England is in Disgrace and now the Encouragment of Trade the Quiet of the Nation and the Freedom of Conscience are again in Vogue that were such odious things but a few years ago that the very mentioning them was enough to load any man with Suspitions as backward in the King's Service while such Methods are used and the Government is as in an Ague divided between hot and cold fits no wonder if Laws so unsteadily executed have failed of their effect V. There is a good reserve here left for Severity when the proper Opportunity to set it on presents it self for his Majesty Declares himself only against the forcing of men in matters of meer Religion so that whensoever Religion and Policy come to be so interwoven that meer Religion is not the case and that Publick Safety may be pretended then this Declaration is to be no more claimed so that the fastning any thing upon the Protestant Religion that is inconsistent with the Publick Peace will be pretended to shew that they are not persecuted for meer Religion In France when it was resolved to extirpate the Protestants all the Discourses that were written on that Subject were full of the Wars occasioned by those of the Religion in the last Age tho as these were the happy Occasions of bringing the House of Bourbon to the Crown they had been ended above 80. years ago and there had not been so much as the least Tumult raised by them these 50. years past so that the French who have smarted under this Severity could not be charged with the least Infraction of the Law yet Stories of a hundred years old were raised up to inspire into the King those Apprehensions of them which have produced the terrible effects that are visible to all the World. There is another Expression in this Declaration which lets us likewise see with what Caution the Offers of Favour are now worded that so there may be an Occasion given when the Time and Conjuncture shall be favourable to break thro them all it is in these words So that they take especial Care that nothing be preached or taught amongst them which may any ways tend to alienate the Hearts of our People from us or our Government This in it self is very reasonable and could admit of no Exception if we had not to do with a set of men who to our great Misfortune have so much Credit with His Majesty and who will be no sooner lodged in the Power to which they pretend than they will make every thing that is preached against Popery pass for that which may in some manner alienate the Subjects from the King. VI. His Majesty makes no doubt of the Concurrence of his Two Houses of Parliament when he shall think it convenient for them to meet The Hearts of Kings are unsearchable so that it is a little too presumptuous to look into His Majesties Secret Thoughts
come out of the Sleep So that after all it is plain on which side the Madness lies The Dissenters for a little present ease to be enjoyed at Mercy must concur to break down all our hedges and to lay us open to that Devouring Power before which nothing can stand that will not worship it All that for which you reproach the Church of England amounts to this that a few good words could not persuade her to destroy her self and to Sacrifice her Religion and the Laws to a party that never has done nor ever can do the King half the service that she has rendred him There are some sorts of propositions that a man does not know how to answer nor would he be thought Ingratefull who after he had received some Civilities from a person to whom he had done great service could not be prevailed with by these so far as to spare him his Wife or his Daughter It must argue a peculiar degree of confidence to ask things that are above the being either askt or granted Our Religion and our Government are matters that are not to be parted with to shew our good breeding and of all men living you ought not to pretend to Good Manners who talk as you do of the Oppression of the last Reign When the King's Obligations to his Brother and the share that he had in his Councils are considered the reproaching his Government has so ill a grace that you are as Indecent in your Flatteries as Injurious in your Reflections And by this gratitude of yours to the Memory of the late King the Church of England may easily Infer how long all her Services would be remembred even if she had done all that was desired of her I would fain know which of the Brethren of the Dissenters in forreigne Countries sought their Relief from Rebellion The Germans Reformed by the Authority of their Princes so did the Swedes the Danes and like wise the Switsers In France they maintained the Princes of the Blood against the League and in Holland the Quarrell was for Civil liberties Protestant and Papist concurring equally in it You mention Holland as an Instance that Liberty and Infallibility can dwell together since Papists there shew that they can be friendly neighbours to those whom they think in the wrong It is very like they would be still so in England if they were under the lash of the law and so were upon their good behaviour the Goverment being still against them and this has so good an effect in Holland that I hope we shall never depart from the Dutch Pattern some can be very Humble Servants that would prove Imperious Masters You say that Force is our only Supporter but tho there is no force of our side at present it does not appear that we are in such a tottering condition as if we had no Supporter left us God and Truth are of our side and the indiscreet use of Force when set on by our Enemies has rather undermined than supported us But you have taken pains to make us grow wiser and to let us see our Errors which is perhaps the only obligation that we owe you and we are so sensible of it that without examining what your Intentions may have been in it we heartily thank you for it I do not comprehend what your quarrell is at the squinting Term of the next heir as you call it tho I do not wonder that squinting comes in your mind whensoever you think of HER for all people look asquint at that which troubles them and her being the next heir is no less the delight of all good men than it is your affliction all the pains that you take to represent her dreadful to the Dissenters must needs find that credit with them that is due to the Insinuations of an Enemy It is very true that as she was bred up in our Church she adheres to it so Eminently as to make her to be now our chief Ornament as we hope she will be once our main Defence If by the strictest form of our Church you mean an Exemplary Piety and a shining Conversation you have given her true Character But your designe lies another way to make the Dissenters form strange Ideas of her as if she thought all Indulgence to them Criminal But as the Gentleness of her nature is such that none but those who are so guilty that all mercy to them would be a Crime can apprehend any thing that is terrible from her so as for the Dissenters her going so constantly to the Dutch and French Churches shews that she can very well endure their Assemblies at the same time that she prefers ours She has also too often expressed her dislike at the heats that have been kept up among us concerning such Inconsiderable Differences to pass for a Bigot or a persecutor in such matters and She sees both the mischief that the Protestant Religion has received from their subdivisions and the happiness of granting a due Liberty of Conscience where she has so long lived that there is no reason to make any fancy that she will either keep up our Differences or bear down the Dissenters with Rigor But because you hope for nothing from her own Inclinations you would have her terrified with the strong Argument of Numbers which you fancy will certainly secure them from her recalling the favour But of what side soever that Argument may be strong sure it is not of theirs who make but one to Two hundred and I suppose you scarce expect that the Dissenters will rebel that you may have your Masses and how their numbers will secure them unless it be by enabling them to Rebell I cannot Imagine this is indeed a squinting at the Next Heir with a witness when you would already muster up the Troops that must rise against her But let me tell you that you know both Her Character and the Prince's very ill that fancy they are only to be wrought on by Fear They are known to your great grief to be above that and it must be to their own Mercifull Inclinations that you must owe all that you can expect under them but neither to their fear nor to your own Numbers As for the hatred and Contempt even to the degree of being more Ridiculous then the Mass under which you say Her way of Worship is in Holland this is one of those figures of speech that shew how exactly you have Studied the Jesuites Moralls All that come from Holland assure us that she is so Universally beloved and esteemed there that every thing that she does is the better thought of even because she does it Upon the whole matter all that you say of the Next Heir proves too truly that you are that for which you reproach the Church of England a Disciple of the Crown only for the loaves for if you had that respect which you pretend for the King you would have shewed it more upon this
occasion Nor am I so much in love with your stile as to imitate it therefore I will not do you so great a pleasure as to say the least thing that may reflect on that Authority which the Church of England has taught me to reverence even after all the Disgraces that she has received from it and if she were not Insuperably restrained by her Principles instead of the Thin Muster with which you reproach her she could soon make so thick a one as would make the Thinnes of yours very visible upon so unequall a division of the Nation But she will neither be threatned nor laughed out of her Religion and her loyalty tho such insultings as she meets with that almost pass all humane Patience would tempt men that had a less fixed principle of submission to make their Enemies feel to their cost that they owe all the Triumphs they make more to our Principles than to their own Force Their laughing at our Doctrine of non resistance lets us see that it would be none of theirs under the Next Heir at whom you Squint if the strong Argument of Numbers made you not apprehend that Two Hundred to one would prove an Unequal Match As for your Memorandums I shall answer them as short as you give them 1. It will be hard to persuade people that a Decision in favour of the Dispencing Power flowing from Judges that are both made and payed and that may be removed at pleasure will amount to the recognising of that Right by law 2. It will be hard to persuade the world that the Kings adhering to his Promises and his Coronation Oath and to the known Lawes of the land would make him Felo de se. The following of different methods were the likelier way to it if it were not for the Loyalty of the Church of England 3. It will be very easy to see the use of continuing the Test by Law since all those that break thro it as well as the Judges who have authorised their Crimes are still liable for all they do and after all your huffing with the Dispencing Power we do not doubt but the apprehension of an after reckoning sticks deep somewhere you say it may be supposed that the aversion of a Protestant King to the Popish party will sufficiently exclude them even without the Test. But it must be confessed that you take all possible care to confirm that Aversion so far as to put it beyond a it may be supposed And it seems you understand Christs Prerogative as wel as the Judges did the Kings that fancy the Test is against it it is so suteable to the nature of all Governments to take Assurances of those who are admitted to Places of Trust that you do very ill to appeal to an Impartial consideration for you are sure to lose it there Few English men will believe you in earnest when you seem zealous for publick liberty or the Magna Charta or that you are so very apprehensive of Slavery And your Friends must have very much changed both their Natures and their Principles if their conduct does not give cause to renew the like Statutes against them even tho they should be repealed in this Reign notwithstanding all your confidence to the contrary I will still believe that the strong Argument of Numbers will be always the powerfullest of all others with you which as long as it has its Force and no longer we may hope to be at quiet I concurre heartily with you in your Prayers for the King tho perhaps I differ from you in my Notions both of his Glory and of the Felicity of his People and as for your own particular I wish you would either not at all Imploy your Pen or learn to write to better purpose but tho I cannot admire your Letter yet I am YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT T. T. THE EARLE of MELFORT's LETTER To the Presbyterian-Ministers IN SCOTLAND Writ in his Majesty's Name upon their Address Together with some Remarks upon it The Earle of Melfort's Letter Gentlemen I Am commanded by his Majesty to signify unto you his gracious acceptance of your Address that he is well satisfied with your Loyalty expressed therein for the which he resolves to perpetuate the favour not only during his own Reign but also to lay down Ways for its Continuance and that by appointing in the next ensuing Parliament the taking off all Penal Statutes contrary to the Liberty or Toleration granted by him His Majesty knows that Enemies to Him to You and this Toleration will be using all Endeavours to infringe the same but as ever the Happiness of his Subjects Standing in Liberty of Conscience and the Security of their Properties next the Glory of God hath been his Majesty's great end so he intends to continue if he have all sutable Encouragement and Concurrence from you in your Doctrine and Practice and therefore as he hath taken away the Protestant Penal Statutes lying on you and herein has walked contrary not only to other Catholick Kings but also in a way different from Protestant Kings who have gone before him whose Maxime was to undoe you by Fining Confining and taking away your Estates and to harrass you in your Persons Liberties and Priviledges so he expects a thankful acknowledgment from you by making your Doctrine tend to cause all his Subjects to walk obediently and by your Practice walking so as shall be most pleasing to his Majesty and the concurring with him for the removing these Penal Statutes and he further expects that you continue your Prayers to God for his long and happy Reign and for all Blessings on his Person and Government and likewise that you look well to your Doctrine and that your Example be influential all thâ—se are his Majesty's Commands Sic subs MELFORT REMARKS THe Secretary hand is known to al the Writing Masters of the Town but here is an Essay of the Secretary's Stile for the Masters of our Language This is an Age of Improvements and Men that come very young into Imployments make commonly a great progress therefore common things are not to be expected here it is true some Roughnesses in the Stile seem to intimate that the Writer could turn his Conscience more easily than he can do his Pen and that the one is a little stiffer and less compliant than the other He tells the Addressers that His Majesty is well satisfied with their Loyalty contained in their Address for the which he resolves to perpetuate the favour It appears that the Secretary Stile and the Notary Stile come nearer one another than was generally believed For the which here infringe the same afterwards are beauties borrowed from the Notary Stile the foresaid is not much courser The King 's perpetuating the Favour is no easy thing unless he could first perpetuate himself Now tho his Majesty's Fame will be certainly immortal yet to our great Regret his Person is mortal so it is hard to conceive how this
his Cause his Friends may thank him for it I will not enter into so tedious a digression as the justifying Queen Elisabeths being Legitimate and the throwing the Bastardy on Queen Mary must carry me to this I will only say that it was made out that according to the best sort of Arguments used by the Church of Rome I mean the constant Tradition of all Ages King Henry the VIII marrying with Queen Katherine was Incestuous and by Consequence Queen Mary was the Bastard and Queen Elisabeth was the Legitimate issue But our Author not satisfied with defaming Queen Elisabeth tells us that the Church of England was no sooner set up by her than She enacted those Bloody Cannibal Laws to Hang Draw and Quarter the Priests of the Living God But since these Lawes disturb him so much what does he think of the Laws of Burning the poor Servants of the Living God because they cannot give Divine Worship to that which they believe to be only a Piece of Bread The Representation he gives of this part of our History is so false that tho' upon Queen Elisabeth's coming to the Crown there were many Complaints exhibited of the Illegal Violences that Bonner and other Butchers had committed yet all these were stifled and no Penal Lawes were enacted against those of that Religion The Popish Clergy were indeed turned out but they were well used and had Pensions assigned them so ready was the Queen and our Church to forgive what was past and to shew all Gentleness for the future During the first thirteen years of her Reign matters went on calmly without any sort of Severity on the account of Religion But then the restless spirit of that Party began to throw the Nation into violent Convulsions The Pope deposed the Queen and one of the Party had the Impudence to post up the Bull in London upon this followed several Rebellions both in England and Ireland and the Papists of both Kingdoms entred into Confederacies with the King of Spain and the Court of Rome the Priests disposed all the People that depended on them to submit to the Popes Authority in that Deposiâ—ion and to reject the Queens These endeavours besides open Rebellions produced many Secret Practices against her Life All these things gave the rise to the severe Laws which began not to be enacted before the twentieth year of her Reign A War was formed by the Bull of Deposition between the Queen and the Court of Rome so it was a necessary Piece of Precaution to declare all those to be Traitors who were the Missionaries of that Authority which had stript the Queen of hers yet those Laws were not executed upon some Secular Priests who had the Honesty to condemn the Deposing Doctrine As for the Unhappy Death of the Queen of Scotland it was brought on by the wicked Practices of her own Party who fatally Involved her in some of them She was but a Subject here in England and if the Queen took a more Violent way than was decent for her own Security here was no Disloyalty nor Rebellion in the Church of England which owed her no sort of Allegeance IV. I do not pretend that the Church of England has any great cause to value her self upon her Fidelity to King Charles the First tho' our Author would have it pass for the only thing of which She can boast for I confess the cause of the Church was so twisted with the King 's that Interest and Duty went together tho I will not go so far as our Author who says that the Law of Nature dictates to every Individual to fight in his own Defence This is too bold a thing to be delivered so crudely at this time The Laws of Nature are perpetual and can never be cancelled by any special Law So if these Gentlemen own so freely that this is a Law of Nature they had best take care not to provoke Nature too much lest She fly to the Relief that this Law may give her unless she is restrained by the Loyalty of our Church Our Author values his Party much upon their Loyalty to King Charles the First but I must take the Liberty to ask him of what Religion were the Irish Rebells and what sort of Loyalty was it that they shewed either in the first Massacre or in the progress of that Rebellion Their Messages to the Pope to the Court of France and to the Duke of Lorrain offering themselves to any of these that would have undertaken to protect them are Acts of Loyalty which the Church of England is no way inclined to follow and the Authentical Proofs of these things are ready to be produced Nor need I add to this the hard terms that they offered to the King and their ill usage of those whom he Imployed I could likewise repress the Insolence of this Writer by telling him of the Slavish Submissions that their Party made to Cromwel both Father and Son. As for their Adhering to King Charles the First there is a peculiar Boldness in our Authors Assertion who says that they had no Hope nor Interest in that Cause The State of that Court is not so quite forgot but that we do well remember what Credit the Queen had with the King and what Hopes She gave the Party yet they did not so entirely espouse the Kings Cause but that they had likewise a flying Squadron in the Parliaments Army how boldly soever this may be denyed by our Author for this I will give him a proof that is beyond exception in a Declaration of that King 's sent to the Kingdom of Scotland bearing date the 21. of April 1643. which is printed over and over again and as an Author that writes the History of the late Wars has assured us the clean draught of it corrected in some places with the King 's own hand is yet extant so that it cannot be pretended that this was only a bold assertion of some of the Kings Ministers that might be ill affected to their Party In that Declaration the King studied to possess his Subjects of Scotland with the Justice of his Cause and among other things to clear himself of that Imputation that he had an Army of Papists about him after many things said on that head these words are added Great numbers of that Religion have been with great alacrity entertained in that Rebellious Army against us and others have been seduced to whom we had formerly denyed Imployments as appears by the Examination of many Prisoners of whom we have taken twenty and thirty at a time of one Troop or Company of that Religion I hope our Author will not have the Impudence to dispute the Credit that is due to this Testimony but no Discoveries how evident soever they may be can affect some sort of men that have a Secret against blushing V. Our Author exhorts us to change our Principles of Loyalty and to take Example of our Catholick Neighbours how to behave our selves
towards a Prince that is not of our Perswasion But would he have us learn of our Irish Neighbours to cut our Fellow Subjects Throats and rebel against our King because he is of another Religion for that is the freshest Example that any of our Catholick Neighbours have set us and therefore I do not look so far back as to the Gunpowder-plot or the League of France in the last Age. He reproaches us for failing in our Fidelity to our King. But in this matter we appeal to God Angels and Men and in particular to His Majesty Let our Enemies shew any one Point of our Duty in which we have failed for as we cannot be charged for having preacht any Seditious Doctrine so we are not wanting in the Preaching of rhe Duties of Loyalty even when we see what they are like to cost us The point which he singles out is that we have failed in that grateful Return that we owed His Majesty for his Promise of Maintaining our Church as it is established by Law since upon that we ought to have repealed the Sanguinary Laws and the late Impious Tests the former being enacted to maintain the Usurpation of Queen Elisabeth and the other being contrived to exclude the present King. We have not failed to pay all the Gratitude and Duty that was possible in return to His Majesties Promise which we have carried so far that we are become the Object even of our Enemies Scorn by it With all Humility be it said that if His Majesty had promised us a farther Degree of his Favour than that of which the Law had assured us it might have been expected that our return should have been a degree of Obedience beyond that which was required by Law so that the return of the Obedience injoyned by Law answers a Promise of a Protection according to Law yet we carried this matter further for as was set forth in the beginning of this Paper we went on in so high a pace of Compliance and Confidence that we drew the censures of the whole Nation on us nor could any Jealousies or Fears give us the least Apprehensions till we were so hard pressed in matters of Religion that we could be no longer silent The same Apostle that taught us to Honour the King said likewise that we must obey God rather than man. Our Author knows the History of our Laws ill for besides what has been already said touching the Laws made by Queen Elisabeth the severest of all our Penall Laws and that which troubles him and his friends most was past by K. James after the Gunpowder-plot a Provocation that might have well justified even greater Severities But tho our Author may hope to Impâ—se on an Ignorant Reader who may be apt to believe Implicitly what he says concerning the Laws of the last Age yet it was too bold for him to assert that the Tests which are so lately made were contrived to exclude the present King when there was not a thought of Exclusion many years after the first was made and the Duke was excepted out of the second by a special Proviso But these Gentlemen will do well never to mention the Exclusion for every time that it is named it will make people call to mind the service that the Church of England did in that matter and that will carry with it a Reproach of Ingratitude that needs not be aggravated He also confounds the two Tests as if that for Publick Imployments contained in it a declaration of the King 's being an Idolater or as he makes it a Pagan which is not at all in it but in the other for the Members of Parliament in which there is indeed a Declaration that the Church of Rome is guilty of Idolatry which is done in general terms without applying it to His Majesty as our Author does Upon this he would Infer that his Majesty is not safe till the Tests are taken away but we have given such Evidences of our loyalty that we have plainly shewed this to be false since we do openly declare that our duty to the King is not founded on his being of this or that Religion so that His Majesty has a full Security from our Principles tho the Tests continue since there is no reason that we who did run the hazard of being ruined by the Excluders when the Tide was so strong against us would fail his Majesty now when our Interest and Duty are joyned together but if the Tests are taken away it is certain that we can have no Security any longer for we shall be then laid open to the Violence of such restless and ill-natured men as the Author of this Paper and his Brethren are VI. The same reason that made our Saviour refuse to throw himself down from the roof of the Temple when the Devil tempted him to it in the vain Confidence that Angels must be assistant to him to preserve him holds good in our Case Our saviour said Thou shalt not Tempt the Lord thy God. And we dare not trust our selves to the faith and to the Mercies of a Society that is but too well known to the World to pretend that we should pull down our Pales to let in such Wolves among us God and the Laws have given us a legal Security and His Majesty has promised to maintain us in it and we think it argues no Distrust either of God or the Truth of our Religion to say that we cannot by any Act of our own lay our selves open and throw away that defence Nor would we willingly expose His Majesty to the unwearied Solicitations of a sort of men who if we may Judge of that which is to come by that which is past would give him no rest if once the restraints of Law were taken off but would drive matters to those Extremities to which we see their Natures carry them head-long VII The last Paragraph is a strain worthy of that school that bred our Author he says His Majesty may withdraw his Royal Protection from the Church of England which was promised her upon the account of her constant Fidelity and he brings no other proof to confirm so bold an Assertion but a false Axiome of that despised Philosophy in which he was bred Cessante causa tollitur effectus This is indeed such an Indignity to His Majesty that I presume to say it with all humble reverence these are the last persons whom he ought to pardon that have the boldness to touch so sacred a point as the faith of a Prince which is the chief security of Government and the Foundation of all the Confidence that a Prince can promise himself from his People and which once blasted can never be recovered Equivocations may be both taught and practised with less danger by an Order that has little Credit to lose but nothing can shake Thrones so much as such treacherous Maximes I must also ask our Author in what point of Fidelity has our Church failed so far as to make her forfeit her Title to His Majesties Promises for as he himself has stated this matter it comes all to this The King promised that he would maintain the Church of England as established by Law. Upon which in Gratitude he says that the Church of England was bound to throw up the Chief Security that she had in her Establishment by Law which is that all who are Intrusted either with the Legislative or the Executive parts of our Government must be of her Communion and if the Church of England is not so tame and so Submissive as to part with this then the King is free from his Promise and may withdraw his Royal Protection tho I must crave leave to tell him that the Laws gave the Church of England a Right to that Protection whether His Majesty had promised it or not Of all the Maximes in the World there is none more hurtful to the Government in our present Circumstances than the saying that the Kings Promises and the Peoples Fidelity ought to be Reciprocal and that a Failure in the one cuts off the other for by a very Natural Consequence the Subject may likewise say that their Oaths of Allegeance being founded on the Assurance of His Majesties Protection the One binds no longer than the Other is observed and the Inferences that may be drawn from hence will be very terrible if the Loyalty of the so much decryed Church of England does not put a stop to them FINIS ☜ ☜ ☜