hasty in it that the King's Promise that the Bishop of Lincoln now no more Lord-Keeper should enjoy the King's Favour was scarce three Months old when they put not only the King out of mind of his Promise but the Bishop out of the Duty of his Place but that Laud should perform it whether the Bishop would or not It has been said with what Difficulty the Bishop of Lincoln for so we must now call him procured Laud the Bishoprick of St. David's and the Bishop staid not there but retained him in his Prebendary at Westminster and so after gave him a Living in the Diocess of St. David's of 120 l. per Annum to help his Revenue These two last being Additions to Laud's Preferment coming from the Bishop of Lincoln voluntarily and unsought for by Laud he by Mr. Winn returned his Thanks to the Bishop with this Expression His Life would be too short to requite his Lordship's Goodness But these Favours were not eighteen Months planted when Laud became the Bishop's sharpest Enemy as you may read in the first Part of his Life f. 108. and his Malice grew so high that the Countess of Buckingham the Duke's Mother took notice of it which the Arch-bishop Abbot takes notice of Rushw f. 144. as well as the Bishop of Litchfield As Acts of Grace and Favour usually were accompany'd by our Kings at their Coronation so in this King's Reign the quite contrary must be practised not only to the Earl of Bristol but much more to the Bishop of Lincoln for he was not only denied to do his Homage to the King with the rest of the Spiritual Lords at the Coronation but his Office as Dean of Westminster in assisting the Arch-bishop in the Solemnity of it and yet this too must be done by Laud as the Bishop's Substitute whether he would or not This was the first noble Favour the King extended to the Bishop according to his reiterated Promise when they parted The second was he was denied his Writ of Summons as a Peer in Parliament which met in four days after the Coronation viz. Feb. 6. which was due ex debito Justitiae and which was never denied to Prisoners or condemned Persons even in his Father's time and at last when he obtained it yet he must not presume to sit in Parliament and had much ado to have his Proxy left with the Bishop of Winchester Dr. Andrews as you may read in the second Part of his Life f. 69. But tho the Privilege of Peers a little eclipsed the Power of the mighty Buckingham yet he was resolved to keep Sir Edward Coke Sir Robert Phillips and Sir Thomas Wentworth out of the Commons House by the King's Prerogative as it has been of late used in making them Sheriffs whether they be returned by the Coroner's Inquest of the Counties or not and by this Prerogative Sir Edward Coke was made Sheriff of the County of Bucks Sir Robert Phillips of Somerset and Sir Thomas Wentworth of Yorkshire It made a mighty Noise and an Inquiry which otherwise would not have been that Sir Edward Coke in his extream Age now 77 Years old and who had been Chief Justice of both Benches and Privy-Counsellor should be made a Sheriff of the County and the more for that Sir Edward Coke took Exceptions to the Oath of a Sheriff whereupon it was altered These were the Counsels which govern'd this King in the Infancy of his Reign Now let us see the Success The Commons were so far from granting Subsidies now as in the last Parliament before Grievances were redrest that upon their first Meeting they fell upon Examination of Grievances and the Miscarriage of the Fleet at Cadiz the evil Counsellors about the King's Misgovernment and Misimployment of the King's Revenue and an Account of the three Subsidies and three Fifteenths granted the 21st of King James That new Impositions and Monopolies were multiplied and settled to continue by Grants Customs enhanced by the new Book of Rates and that Tunnage and Poundage was levied tho by no Act of Parliament and the Guard of the Seas neglected However these were Generals but the first Particular fell upon Mountague in five particular Articles wherein he had broken the Laws and Statutes of the Realm and disturbed the Peace both of the Church and Commonwealth 1. Whereas by the Articles of the Convocation holden in the Year 1â—62 it is determined That the Church of Rome is at present and has been for above 900 Years past so far wide from the Nature of a true Church that nothing can be more he the said Mountague in several places of the Book called The Answer to the Gagg and his other Book called The Appeal advisedly affirms and maintains That the Church of Rome is and ever was a true Church since it was a Church 2. Whereas in the 16th Homily of the second Book of Homilies it is declared that the Church of Rome is not built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and in the 23d Article that Transubstantiation overthrows the Nature of a Sacrament and in the 25th Article that the five other Sacraments are not to be accounted Sacraments yet he the said Mountague maintains in his Book called The Answer to the Gagg That the Church of Rome hath ever remained firm upon the same Foundation of Sacraments and Doctrine instituted by God 3. In the 19th of the same Article it is maintained That the Church of Rome hath erred not only in their Living and Matters of Faith and Ceremonies he in his Book called The Gagg does maintain that none of these are controverted in their Points between the Papists and Protestants and tho in the 35th Article it is resolved that the Sacrifice of Masses in which it is commonly said the Priest did offer Christ for the Quick and the Dead to have Remission of Pain and Guilt too is a blasphemous Fable and dangerous Deceit this being one of the controverted Points between the Church of England and the Church of Rome he in his Book called The Gagg does maintain That these controverted Points are of a less and inferiour Nature of which a Man may be ignorant without any danger of his Soul at all and a Man may oppose this or that without peril of perishing for ever 4. Whereas in the second Homily entituled Against the Peril of Idolatry and approved by the 37th Article it is declared That Images teach no good Lesson neither of God or Godliness but all Error and Wickedness he the said Mountague does maintain Images may be used for the Instruction of the Ignorant and Excitation of Devotion 5. That in the same Homily it is plainly expressed That the attributing certain Countries to Saints is a spoiling God of his Honour and that such Saints are but Dii tutelares of the Gentile Idolaters yet the said Mountague in his Book entituled A Treatise concerning the Invocation of Saints affirmed and maintained That the Saints have not only a
Norway for Timber Pitch and Tar and to Liefland and Prussia for rough Hemp and Flax for which Trades the English never built one Ship since this Act and by reason of the Dearness and Inconveniences of our English Ships in these Trades the Norwegians have encreased their Navigation from 6 Ships of about 60 Tun to above 200 of three four five and six hundred Tun and the English pay near double the Price for these they did before the Act. And as the Inhabitants of Liefland and Prussia rarely or never trade with us in rough Hemp and Flax so the Dutch importing these by the Cheapness of their Navigation one third cheaper than the English and when they are made into the Manufactures of Cordage Sails and Nets the Dutch by the Act of Navigation may import them whereby the English in their Fisheries and the Foreign Vent of their Commodities have lost the Manufactures of them and by a Foreign Expence buy them of the Dutch and French as much to their enriching and Employment of their People as to our Impoverishment and the Loss of employing ours It 's fit to give this light Touch of the Mischiefs and Inconveniences this Act has brought upon the Nation but hereafter I shall enlarge upon them when I reply upon Sir Josiah Child and Sir Brewster's Defence of it as before CHAP. II. A Continuation of this Treatise during the Vsurpation of Oliver Cromwel WHEN Men forsake the plain and foreknown Ways of Justice and Righteousness they not only run into Confusion or contrary Extreams but these they endeavour to sanctify by previous swearing to them and imposing them upon other Men. In Scotland 1638 the Scots without the King's Consent made their Covenant wherein they abjure Episcopacy and swear a mutual Defence of one another herein against all Persons whatsoever without excepting the King and imposed this upon all Sorts of People with Violence and Menaces as beating tearing of Clothes drawing of Blood and exposing thousands to Injuries and Reproaches and notwithstanding several Laws to the contrary expelled all Professors of Colleges and Ministers out of their Places who refused to subscribe their Covenant See Baker's Chron. fol. 461. a. To encounter the Scots Covenant by a contrary Extream the English Convocation in the Year 1640 after the King had dissolved the Parliament imposed without Consent in Parliament an Oath wherein they swear That they approve the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England as containing all things necessary to Salvation that they will not endeavour to bring in any Popish Doctrine contrary to it That they will not consent to alter the Government of this Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons c. as it now stands and ought by right to stand nor to subject it to the Vsurpations and Supersttitions of Rome That this they do plainly and sincerely acknowledg and swear and do it heartily and willingly Thus was God's Sacred Name exposed to cover their Ambitious Designs on both sides and for which neither gave any Reason Nor did this Convocation stay here but imposed without Consent of Parliament six Subsidies upon the Clergy to be paid in six Years for carrying on a War against the Scots the refusers to be suspended and excommunicated Thus you see now In Nomine Domini on both sides these Feuds began at the Clergy and the King to secure the Convocation set Guards about Westminster Abby Here let 's examine and compare these two Oaths The Covenanters in Scotland swear That according to their Places and Callings they shall endeavour the Preservation of the Reformed Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government At this Time there was no Reformed Church in Scotland but the Episcopal unless the Scots Covenanters erected another So here the Scots do not distinguish which Church they swear to endeavour to preserve nor say what the Doctrine Discipline Worship and Government of the Church of Scotland was So that herein in the first part of the Oath they swear equivocally and in the second they swear by Implicit Faith without declaring wherein their Doctrine Discipline Worship and Government does consist That they shall also endeavour the Extirpation of Popery Prelacy Superstition Heresy Schism Prophaneness c. All Oaths are to be taken in Truth viz. of what a Man knows or truly intends Can any Man believe that every Scot which swears the Covenant knows what Popery Prelacy Superstition Schism and Prophaneness are especially when they have an c. joined to them I do not believe that ever the Church of Rome or any other Nation ever imposed such an Equivocal and Canting Oath as this Covenant by a Rout of Men and contrary to the establisht Government in being and against the King's express Will And to make all sure they swear to defend all those that shall enter into this Covenant and shall zealously and constantly all the Days of their Lives continue therein But God shall soon blast this abominable Swearing to the Destruction of these Covenanters The Oath of the Covenant was purely promissory wherein they swear what wondrous Acts they would do in Preservation of their Kirk c. and for the Extirpation of Popery Prelacy c and for the mutual Defence of one another But the first Part of the Convocation-Oath is assertory wherein they swear that they approve the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England as containing all things necessary to Salvation so as there is no further need of searching the Scriptures and no Man needs further to seek his Salvation with Fear and Trembling if he be conversant in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England The next part of it is negatively Promissory that they will not bring in any Popish Doctrine contrary to it The third part of it is partly Promissory and partly Assertory Promissory not to give Consent to alter the Government of this Church by Archbishops Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons c. Assertory as it now stands and ought to stand The fourth part is Promissory not to subject it to the Usurpations and Supersitions of Rome without declaring what these were The last part of this Oath is Assertory That this they do plainly and sincerely acknowledg and swear and do it heartily willingly and truly Now let 's see the Success of this jumbled Oath and Grant of these Subsidies first the King never got one Groat of them Secondly The very next Year after viz. March 10th the Commons voted that no Bishop should have any Vote in Parliament nor any judicial Power in the Star-Chamber nor Authority in Temporal Matters and that no Clergy-man shall be in Commission of the Peace and upon the 22d of June the High Commission Court and Star-Chamber wherein Laud and the Prerogative Clergy plaid their Pranks were abolished by Act of Parliament and soon after viz. January 12th Twelve of the Bishops were committed to the Tower for High Treason for protesting against all Votes and Orders of
Dutch in this Peace being to restore all they had taken in the Leeward Islands to the English And now the Steed is stoln the Stable-door is shut for after the Peace thousands of People were pressed in London to finish the Fort at Sheerness and it being a terrible aguish Time in an aguish Place almost all fell sick and it was deemed by many that more died there than in all the Dutch War In this Consternation 't was necessary to do something to appease the Parliament and People and so the King sends for the Seal from my Lord Chancellor Hide which was no sooner done but the Parliament were as fierce upon him as for the Dutch War One of his intimate Friends told me he took Counsel with his Friends whether he should stay or leave the Kingdom they all advised him not to stay and so he left the Kingdom yet fell into more Danger than if he had not for at Diep a Company of rude Sea-men endeavour'd to have assassinated him Thus fell this great Chancellor and Statesman I do not say a Sacrifice for either King or People having followed the King's Father in all his Wars and himself in his Exile yet he lived to see two Lord Chancellors in England and two Lord Keepers alive at the same time no Argument of the Steadiness of Counsels after him Two were deposed as well as he and the third with much ado lived to die in the Place A little before his Deposure as if he had lived long enough that great Standard of Loyalty and true Nobility my Lord Treasurer Southampton died but sure so upright a Chancellor or two such honourable Counsellors and Statesmen for their Integrity to the English Interest and great Understanding in State-Affairs have not since succeeded but they were but two to too many others and the King's Inclinations were towards the other side so as neither he nor my Lord Treasurer Southampton were present at the Council when the War was declared against the Dutch But this Power was in the Wain and the Torrent run t'other way It was time for the Dutch to make Peace with England for this Summer the French King with a mighty Army was fallen into Flanders and like a Torrent had ravaged Artois Hainault and other parts of the Spanish Netherlands and taken Charleroy Oudenard Aeth Courtray and Lisle But that we may take a better View of this War we must look back In the Year 1612 there was a cross Marriage between Lewis XIII of France and Philip IV. of Spain Lewis married Philip's Sister and Philip married Elizabeth Lewis his Sister By Elizabeth Philip had Don Belthazar and the Infanta married to the French King by the Treaty of the Pyrenees In the Year 1649 Elizabeth of France being dead Philip married Ann the Daughter of Ferdinand the Third Emperor Philip's own Niece by whom he had Charles the now King of Spain I do not find whether Don Belthazar was dead before the French King married his Sister but Charles the now King was born about Nine Months after the Pyrenean Treaty By the Pyrenean Treaty the French King by all that they call sacred in the Church of Rome and by all the Clauses the Wit of Man could express to avoid Evasion disclaimed all Right or Title to Spain or any part of it in the Right of the Infanta and Philip dying in the Year 1665 the French King did engage his Faith and Royal Word to the Queen by the Marquess De la Fuente that he would Religiously keep the Peace and continue a faithful Friendship with her and her Son during his Minority nay after the Eruption by the French into Flanders the Arch-Bishop of Ambrun did in Verbo Sacerdotis protest and vow to the Queen that his Master the French King would never break with the King of Spain or invade his Dominions during his Minority By this time the Dauphin I think was about Six Years old and his Father to cover his Hypocrisy and Perfidy pretended that the Women of Brabant by the first Venter inherit before the Males of the second but you shall see Brabant flow over all the Spanish Netherlands and therefore no Act of his could preclude the Dauphin who was born of Philip's first Wife which vain Pretension was throughly confuted by the renowned States-man the Baron de Isola in his excellent Treatise termed The Buckler of State and Justice However about four Days after the Arch-Bishop of Ambrun's Protestation the Queen of Spain had notice of a Manifesto published by the French King that he had so fully proved his Son's Title that he did not think himself obliged to spend any time in unprofitable Contests about it yet not to make War but to take Friendly Possession of what was so justly due to the Dauphin Never was Spain at so low an Ebb and unable to make Opposition to the French as at this time for besides our King 's giving up Dunkirk to the French and the breaking of the Spanish Army at the Fight at Elvas in Portugal which should have defended Flanders the War still continued there where the French by a Treaty with Portugal contrary to the Pyrenean Treaty were to have all the Port Towns taken from the Spaniard The Buchaneers at Jamaica plagued the Spaniard in the Returns of their Plate-Fleet and plundered and fired many of the Spanish Towns upon the firm Land And Don John the King's Bastard Brother and the Queen were at highest Discord about her Confessor Nitard so as Don John refused to accept of the Government of Flanders again to oppose the French Here 't is observable how much the French King's Ambition prevail'd beyond his Zeal to Religion for in 1665 and 1666 the Irish had been treating with him to send an Army into Ireland to assist the Irish in a designed Rebellion against the King which this Year was brought to Maturity and the French King promised to send them Forty Thousand Men to land on St. Lewis's Day in August But he kept his Promise no better with them to assist them than he did his Oath at the Pyrenean Treaty not to assist the Portuguese and to the Queen Regent in Spain not to invade any of the Spanish Dominions during the Minority of the King The King either stung with the Success of his Mother's Assurance that the Dutch would put out no Fleet this Year or at this time angry with his Brother of France for the Ravages he had made upon the English in the West-Indies whereby the King's Customs were much lessened or it may be having some Seeds of the wholsome Counsels which the Chancellor Hide and Treasurer Southampton had infused into him how dangerous it would be to England as well as Holland for the French to make a Conquest in Flanders sent to Sir William Temple his then Resident at Brussels to take joint Measures with the States for restraining the Progress of the French Conquests in Flanders This was in January 1667
are perceived by the Senses and understood to exist or be yet these are known to be by some and not by others and in Justice and Judgment the end of an assertory Oath is to inform the Judg of the Truth of what a Man knows which otherwise might be concealed and here I say that as God's Name in Religion Piety and Justice is to be invoked when it is not in vain but for God's Honour so otherwise to use or abuse his sacred Name in vain is dishonourable to God and makes it vile and contemptible Now let 's see how the ranting Swearing of this Test agrees with the Religion and Obligation of an Oath and observe it in its Particulars or Confusion It begins I solemnly swear in the Presence of the Eternal God whom I invoke as Judg and Witness of this my sincere Intention of this my Oath that I own and profess the true Protestant Religion contained in the Confession of Faith recorded in the first Year of King James the Sixth So that here is a most horrible Swearing and Invocation of God's sacred Name and yet neither an assertory nor promissory Oath for an assertory Oath is of some Act or Speech in time past which was transient and not when the Oath was taken and a promissory Oath is of time to come whereas in this Oath the Taker swears in the present time he does own the Protestant Religion recorded in the Confession of Faith in the first Year of King James the Sixth I believe there is such a Record intituled The Confession of Faith in the first Year of King James the Sixth because Spotiswood and other Scotish Authors say so but to swear by the Eternal God that it contains the true Protestant Religion when the Name is not in it is such an implicite Faith as can scarce be found in the most superstitious in the Church of Rome Christian Faith is a Belief of God's Revelations in the Scriptures to which if any add or dimniish his Name shall be blotted out of the Book of Life Rev. 22. 18 29. But where the Scots found their Confession of Faith in the first Year of King James Knox no where tells tho he was the Founder of it And I believe the same to be agreeable to the Written Word of God But what need you swear by the Eternal God you do so If you demonstrate or give the Reason of your Belief which you do not this might convince another which your Swearing never will That I will adhere thereto and endeavour to educate my Children therein The more obstinate Man you and so much the worse for your Children And never consent to any Change or Alterations thereto This might have been left out for if you adhere to it you cannot consent to any Change or Alteration And renounce all Popish and Fanatical Doctrines inconsistent with the said Protestant Religion and Confession of Faith I take a Renunciation to be a Disclaimure of what was before so that if you renounce all Popish and Fanatical Doctrines c. it seems before you owned them yet you neither tell what these Popish and Fanatical Doctrines are or wherein they are inconsistent with the Protestant Religion and Confession of Faith or how you come to know so and if you do not it ill becomes you to prostitute God's sacred Name to swear to what you do not know And by this my solemn Oath I swear that King Charles the Second is the only Supream Governour of this Realm over all Persons and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil By which of your Senses do you know this by your seeing smelling touching or tasting Or if it be by another's having told you so will you swear to whatever another tells you Or if another should tell you that King Charles the Second is not the only Supream Governour c. will you swear by the Eternal God he is not so or if King Charles should be dead when you are swearing this which he may for ought you know how long will you hold of this Mind And that I renounce what again all foreign Jurisdiction of the Pope or any other Person If I cannot take your Word I 'll not think the better of it for your swearing to it And promise to bear true Allegiance to the King his Heirs and Lawful Successors 'T is well if you hold long in this Mind but before you renounced all foreign Jurisdiction of the Pope suppose and be not affrighted at it King Charles the Second and his Lawful Successor should now be contriving the bringing in this Foreign Jurisdiction how by the Eternal God would you beâ—â— Faith and Allegiance to them herein And to my Power defend all their Rights and Prerogatives c. Yet you neither declare what these Rights and Prerogatives are which you swear to defend and 't is twenty to one you do not know these Rights and Prerogatives and so you solemnly swear to you know not what or suppose the King and his Lawful Successor should say it was one of his Prerogatives to bring in the Papal Jurisdiction how would this consist with your solemn Faith and Allegiance to the King and his Lawful Successors and your renouncing all Foreign Jurisdiction And I judg it unlawful for Subjects upon Pretence of Reformation or any Pretence whatsoever to enter into any Covenants or Leagues or to convene c. in any Council to treat of any Matter Ecclesiastical or Civil without his Majesty's special Command and express Licence or to take up Arms against the King or those commissionated by him So that here you judg without any Reason of your Judgment and must have your Judgment pass for currant because you swear to it and at this rate you may swear and judg as you please and sure never before was ever Religion or Judgment established upon such Foundations That I will never rise in Arms or enter into such Covenants or Assemblies For all your swearing to this yet I believe my Lord Commissioner will not trust to your Oath and the rather because you were so loose to it in observing your solemn League and Covenant which you sware with as servent Affection as you now seem to do to this and with Hands and Heart lifted up to the most high God That there lies no Obligation upon me by the National Covenant 〈◊〉 solemn League and Covenant or any other way to endeavour any Change or Alteration of Government either in Church or State as now established Does there lie no Obligation upon you by the solemn League and Covenant c. to endeavour any Change or Alteration in Church or State why you as solemnly sware that as this and by that you sware to extirpate Prelacy and here you swear never to endeavour any Change of it Or do you think you please his Highness my Lord Commissioner herein whose Business it is not only to make Alterations but to subvert your Church and State And if you will
Law established Commends the Church of England's Principles and Members knows likewise that the Laws of England are sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as he can wish and therefore as he will never depart from the just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown so he will never invade any Man's Property The next Sunday after his Brother's Death the King went publickly to Mass and that Week I think he order'd his Brother's dying in the Communion of the Church of Rome and before his Death his receiving his Viaticum and other Ceremonies of that Church and attested by Father Huddleston to be printed and also the Papers taken out of the King's Strong-box shewing that however he outwardly appeared otherwise in his Life yet in his Heart he was sincerely a true Roman Catholick So that however he promised to preserve the Church of England as by Law established yet his Profession was of the Church of Rome which curses the Church of England and declares them Hereticks Schismaticks and Sacrilegious Persons with whom no Faith is to be kept The King's Father Charles I took the Customs before granted by Parliament this King took both Customs and the Excise granted only for the Life of his Brother before they were given him by Parliament How this corresponded with the King's Promise but the Week before that he would never invade any Man's Property I do not understand for tho in every Government no Man has Property against the Supream Power yet by the English Constitutions the Supream Power of the Nation is in the Parliament in Conjunction with the King and the King 's taking both the Customs and Temporary Excise for his Brother's Life by his only Will and Pleasure was as much a Violation upon the Property of the Subject as if he had taken the rest of their Goods and Inheritances To the King's Promise of preserving the Church and State of England as by Law established he adds That he will imitate his kind Brother in his great Clemency and Tenderness of his People The first Act of the King's Clemency and Tenderness to his People was extended to Dr. Oates but tho the Act was compleated in this King's Reign the Scene was laid in his good and gracious Brother's when Oates was Fined 100000 l. for Scandalum Magnatum against the Duke of York in saying The Duke was reconciled to the Church of Rome and to be kept close Prisoner till the Fine was paid Oates being thus mew'd up upon the King 's coming to the Crown an Indictment of Perjury is contrived against him upon two Points one That Ireland was not in London from the 3d of August in 1678 till the 14th of September next following when Oates in Ireland's Trial said He was in a Consult concerning the killing the King about the middle of August The other was That Oates was at St. Omers all April and May in 1678 when Oates in Harcourt and Whitebread's c. Trials swore They were at a Consult the 24th of April concerning killing the King and establishing the Popish Religion But that a better View may be had of this Trial of Oates it 's fit to look back into King Charles II's Reign It seems evident to me That after the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford and I believe it will to any other that shall read King Charles's History that he designed never after to have another Parliament until he should get the Corporations to surrender their Charters so as they should elect no other Members than pleased him and in the mean time to take off the Heads of those who were zealous in prosecuting the Popish Plot. Upon the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford the Feuds between the Whigs and Tories were in highest Ferment so that whatever was done against the Whigs was cried up by the Tories and Addresses made by them to the King that they would live and die with him in them And because the Whigs as they were called would not find Bills against my Lord of Shaftsbury and Colledge they resolved to carry the Election of Sheriffs in 1682 wherein Mr. Dubois and Mr. Papillon Whigs stood Candidates against Sir Peter Rich and Sir Dudley North Tories but they resolved by Right or Wrong Rich and North should carry it and so they did but by what Right you may judg by the Prints The Tories having gained this Point Sir R. S. Gra. and Burt. are Instruments for packing Juries the Judges North Pemberton and Saunders c. shall do their parts for declaring Charters void and for Trying Fitz-Harris my Lord Russel Colonel Sidney Sir Thomas Armstrong c. But the taking off the Heads of the Whigs was but half this Design the impeached Lords in the Tower must be let loose or the Game was but half play'd This was so ticklish a Point that neither Pemberton nor Saunders could be brought up to it but Saunders dying and Pemberton removed to the Common Pleas Sir Geo. Jeffries was set up to do this Work which he did to content and so was initiated to do what other Journey-work the Court should order And now before him Oates is to be tried for Perjury upon the two Points aforesaid Ireland was tried above six Years before viz. in December 1678 before a Jury of Judges in the Old-Baily and so was Whitebread and Harcourt within about a Month less than six Years viz. in June 1679. Ireland pleaded he was not in London from the 3d of August till the 14th of September and Whitebread Harcourt c. pleaded that Oates was at St. Omers all April and May in 1678 so that if their Witnesses said true 't was impossible Oates's Testimony of Whitebread's being at the Consult in April and Ireland's in August could be true That Oates was in Town in April and May in 1678 was proved by Sir Richard Barker Mr. Walker a Minister Mr. Clay a Romish Priest Mrs. Mayo Sarah Ives Mr. Oates's Schoolmaster with whom Oates dined about the Beginning of May Mr. Page and Butler Sir Barker's Coachman But besides Oates and Bedlow's swearing Ireland was at the Consult in August only Sarah Pain who had been Servant to Grove one of the Jesuits swore Ireland was in Town in August Oates thus mew'd up the St. Omers Boys are sent for over in all haste and you need not doubt had new Instructions and the Crew of Staffordshire Witnesses the Boys to swear Oates was at St. Omers all April and May the Staffordshire Witnesses that Ireland was in Staffordshire or thereabouts in August and September Jeffries was the Judg and you need not doubt of a Jury to chime into Jeffries summing up the Evidence Things standing in this Posture Oates is tried upon the 9th of May upon Perjury upon these two Points At the Trial Oates could get only four Witnesses to appear and 't was a Wonder he could get any viz. Mr. Walker the Minister who after so long time durst not trust to his Memory to swear positively
intend to make Lord-Lieutenant in Ireland an independent Commission to reform the Army in Ireland and to take the Troopers Horses Pistols Swords and Boots and the Arms and Clothing of the Foot which they had bought and paid for without paying for them I then told you I would endeavour to preserve the Church and State of England as established by Law but now I tell you that I have employed some Officers in the Army not qualified according to the late Tests and will deal plainly with you I will neither expose them to Disgrace nor my self to the want of them The Militia is not sufficient for my Occasions nothing but a good Force of disciplin'd Troops in constant Pay will do it and to that purpose I think it necessary to encrease the Number to the proportion I have done viz. double for which I ask your Assistance in giving me a Supply answerable to the Expence it brings along with it Tho I have disbanded the Army in Ireland which were as true Passive-Obedience-Men as could be got for Love or Money yet were they not fit for my Occasions and tho I have encreased my Army in England to such a Proportion as you now see and officer'd with such Officers as are not qualified by the late Tests yet they are not fit for my Occasions and for which I ask your Assistance in giving me a Supply answerable to the Expence it brings along with it yet let no Man be so wicked as to hope this may put a Difference between you and me but consider what Advantages have arisen to us in a few Months by the good Understanding we have hitherto had and the wonderful Effects it hath already had Now let 's see what Influence this King's Speech had upon the Members The Lords hand over head ordered Thanks to the King for his good and gracious Speech but it did not pass so hastily with the Commons but they debated it Paragraph by Paragraph and because the Militia had not been so forward as the King would have them they voted that they would take into their Consideration how to make it more useful in time to come in case such dangerous Attempts should be made as in Monmouth's Rebellion and upon the 16th of November made this Address to the King Most Gracious Sovereign WE Your Majesty's most Loyal and Faithful Subjects the Commons in Parliament Assembled do in the first place as in Duty bound return Your Majesty most humble and hearty Thanks for your great Care and Conduct in the Suppression of the late Rebellion which threatned the Overthrow of this Government both of Church and State and the uttter Extirpation of our Religion as by Law established which is most dear to Vs and which Your Majesty has been graciously pleased to give Vs repeated Assurances You will always Defend and Support which with all grateful Hearts we shall ever acknowledg We further crave leave to acquaint Your Majesty that we have with all Duty and Readiness taken into our Consideration Your Majesty's gracious Speech to Vs and as to that part of it relating to the Officers in the Army not qualified for their Imployments according to an Act of Parliament made in the 25th Year of the Reign of Your Majesty's Royal Brother of Blessed Memory Intitled An for preventing Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants We do out of Our bounden Duty humbly represent unto Your Majesty that these Officers by Law be uncapable of their Imployment and that the dangers they bring upon themselves thereby can no ways be taken off but by Act of Parliament Therefore out of the great Deference and Duty we owe unto Your Majesty who has been so graciously pleased to take notice of their Services to you we are preparing a Bill to pass both Houses for Your Royal Assent to Indemnify them from the Penalty they have now incurred and because the continuance of them in their Imployments may be taken to be a Dispensing Power with that Law without Act of Parliament the Consequence of which is of the greatest Concernment to the Rights of all your Majesty's Dutiful and Loyal Subjects and to all the Laws made for security of their Religion We therefore the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of your Majesty's House of Commons do most humbly beseech Your Majesty that You would be graciously pleased to give such Directions therein that no Apprehension or Jealousies may remain in the Hearts of Your Majesty's Good and Faithful Subjects This Address was like the shutting the Stable-door when the Steed was stoln these Commons had no such Apprehensions when they heaped such an exorbitant Revenue upon the King to enable him to maintain an Army of 40000 Men to ride them and the Nation when he pleased and now they see the King drives a Way which tends to the Nations as well as their Destructions they tell the King such Ways may give Apprehensions and Jealousies in the Hearts of His Majesty's good and faithful Subjects Did not the Commons in all the four Parliaments in King Charles the 2d's Reign declare what would be the Consequences of the Duke of York's coming to the Crown and did the Duke's Actions while he was Regent in Scotland any ways alleviate those Parliaments Fears Could this Parliament as 't was called now they were got together again and saw Colonel Talbot with an independent Commission from the Lord Lieutenant so barbarously disbanding the Army in Ireland because guilty only of being Protestants yet believe the King would admit of no Papists in his Army in England Could they believe that once professing of the King who was a Jesuited Papist that he would maintain the Church and State as by Law established would wash out all the Jesuit Principles which had taken such deep root in him that no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks which the King esteemed these who had prostituted him with such a vast Revenue and all the Nation besides who were not of his Faction to be but that by Fire Faggot and all other such means they were to be rooted out and grow no more upon the Face of the Earth The Bishops retained fresh in memory during the Reign of King Charles the 2d the Indignities the Factions in the late times had shewed to their Persons and Revenues so that they were not only opposite to the Commons in passing the Bills which the Commons had prepared for uniting the King's Protestant Subjects when they perceived the Danger the Nation was in by the Popish Designs but stifly opposed the passing The Bill of Exclusion against the Succession of the Duke of York and all along King Charles his Reign countenanced the Doctrine of Passive Obedience as thinking themselves and their Order most secure under it but herein their Politicks failed them For now the Bishops perceived a more terrible Storm coming upon them by a Faction who never shewed Mercy to any opposite to them whenever it came in their Power and the
of Indulgence was an unlawful Act and that if they had submitted to the King's Will to have enjoined it to have been read in all Churches and Chappels of their respective Diocesses it had been an unlawful Act which was one Reason they could not comply with the King's Will and that this Declaration was not intended a Favour to the Protestant Dissenters but a Design to ruin the established Religion and Church of England and the enjoining the Bishops to have read was a Design upon their Persons as well as the Declaration was upon the Church and that the King professed himself to be of the Popish Religion which they believed and declared to be Idolatry in the worshipping Images and derogatory to God's Honour by Invocation of Saints whereby they grant to Creatures an Omniscience which is inseparable from God and only to be ascribed to him and that the King had owned the Papal Power which not only claims a Dominion over all Kings and Kingdoms to be at the Pope's disposal and who had declared the Church of England to be Heretical Schismatical and Sacrilegious Persons with whom no Faith is to be kept but had assumed a Power equal or superiour to God himself in dispensing with God's Laws and setting its own above them by sending his Ambassador to the Pope and receiving his Nuncio With what Conscience then could the Bishops approach God's Altars in their highest Acts of Devotion and in the Prayer for the Parliament declare to God that he is their most religious King and in the Litany to pray to God to keep and strengthen the King in the Worship of God or Religion which the King profest And how could they delare to God he is their most gracious Sovereign when he had imprisoned them for not submitting to his unlawful Will and had owned a Power which had declared them Hereticks Schismaticks and Sacrilegious Persons who were by all ways and means to be extirpated from the Face of the Earth Yet the Bishops by their Canonical Obedience were as much obliged hereto and to enjoin the Clergy in their respective Diocesses to offer these Praises to God as they were not to obey the King's Will by enjoining the King's Declaration of Indulgence to be read by all the Clergy in their Diocesses To this Dilemma had the flattering Church and State in King Charles the II's Reign tho intending it against the Presbyterians by their Act of Vniformity brought the Church and State too in the Reign of King James But lest this establishing of Popery should have no longer support than in the King's Life a new Miracle is to be added to the Legend for the next day after the Bishops were committed to the Tower the Queen was brought to Bed of a Prince of Wales so that now they had got a Prince of Wales and the Queen received the Consecrated Clouts and the Pope by his Nuncio is become God-father a Foundation so infallible is laid for exalting the Papal Chair and extirpating the Pestilent Northern Heresy that it's Heresy to doubt it But Man purposes and God disposes and in truth without God's special Assistance not only these Dominions of England Scotland and Ireland but all the Western Parts of Europe were not to be retrieved out of I may say even a desperate State for in England the King had a standing Army of above 20000 Men and the Whigs were but too forward to congratulate the King in his Designs and in humouring him in giving him up their Charters as the Tories in King Charles his Reign in their Abhorrences of the King 's calling a Parliament and as forward then as the Whigs now in surrendring their Charters The Protestant Army in Ireland not only disbanded by Tyrconnel and a Popish Army set up but the Protestants disarmed and Scotland so perfectly subdued that there the King 's Absolute Will without reserve must pass for Law The King of Spain so weak as not able to defend himself much less relieve others the Empire engaged in a War against the Turks in the East so as the Western Parts were in no Condition to repel the Impression the French should make upon it The Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark remote and at such natural Enmity with one another that if one should side with France or England the other would engage against it and tho Holland were considerable elsewhere at Sea yet their Strength at Sea was inferiour to the English but much more in Conjunction of the French with the English However something must be done for Modesty in this State had been the highest Crime and of all Foreign Princes the Prince of Orange was most immediately concerned not only in the Oppression of the French King upon his Principality of Orange and the Dangers which threatned the Vnited Provinces by the swelling Grandeur of the French but by the King 's Arbitrary Proceedings in England for the Princess was the Presumptive Heir to the Crown of England and Scotland And since it is the Laws and Constitutions which erect these Nations into Kingdoms whereof the King is the Head then if the King destroys the Laws and Constitutions he is neither King nor the Princess of Orange Presumptive Heir to them besides since the King had assumed a Power of Dispensing with the Laws he might as well in Dispensing with the Succession and the Prince was well assured neither those about the King nor the Pope would much favour his or his Lady's Title to the Crown nor was the introducing the Prince of Wales into the World intended to have either the Prince or Princess come to the Crown of England The Prince of Orange thus injured by both these Kings and being denied the Benefit of any Humane Laws for redress has recourse to God and his Sword for relief and opposes the Justice of his Cause against the Potency of his Adversaries Nor does he take up his Sword to vindicate his own Rights only but for restoring the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland to their antient Rights Laws and Privileges invaded by King James and to put a stop to the French King 's boundless Ambition and Tyranny in Murdering Ravaging and Destroying rather than making a War upon all his neighbouring Princes not dispossest and ruined by him A Design so great by so little a Prince as no less than a Divine Power could inspire him to such an Undertaking The Prince these two last years had several Conferences with the Electors of Brandenburg Saxony and the Princes of the House of Lunenburg and other Princes of Germany it 's believed in concerting Measures how to behave themselves against the Designs of these two Kings but the Results were so secret that I find no mention of them But how secret soever these Results were yet the Preparations to put them in Execution could be no Secret especially the Naval Preparations by Sea though the Dutch Ambassador assured the King they were not intended against him yet refused to communicate