43. A Brief Account of particulars occurring at the happy death of our late Soveraign Lord K. Ch. 2d in regard to Religion faithfully related by his then Assistant Mr. Jo. Huddleston 280 44. Some Reflections on His Majesty's Proclamation of the Twelfth of Feb. 1686 7. for a Toleration in Scotland together with the said Proclamation 281 45. His Majesty's Gracious Declaration to all his Loving Subjects for Liberty of Conscience 287 46. A Letter containing some Reflections on His Majesty's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience Dated April 4. 1687. 289 47. A Letter to a Dissenter upon Occasion of His Majesty's Late Gracious Declaration of Indulgence 294 48. The Anatomy of an Equivalent 300 49. A Letter from a Gentleman in the City to his Friend in the Countrey containing his Reasons for not reading the Declaration 309 50. An Answer to the City Minister's Letter from his Countrey Friend 314 51. A Letter from a Gentleman in Ireland to his Friend in London upon ocasion of a Pamphlet entituled A Vindication of the Present Government of Ireland under his Excellency Richard Earl of Tyrconnel 316 52. A Plain Account of the Persecution laid to the Charge of the Church of England 322 53. Abby and other Church Lands not yet assured to such possessors as are Roman-Catholicks dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of that Religion 326 54. The King's Power in Ecclesiastical matters truly stated 331 55. A Letter writ by Mijn Heer Fagel Pensioner of Holland to Mr. James Stewart Advocate giving an Account of the Prince and Princess of Orange's thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws 334 56. Reflections on Monsieur Fagel's Letter 338 57. Animadversions upon a pretended Answer to Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter 343 58. Some Reflections on a Discourse called Good Advice to the Church of England c. 363 59. The ill effects of Animosities 371 60. A Representation of the Threatning Dangers impending over Protestants in Great-Britain With an Account of the Arbitrary and Popish ends unto which the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland are designed 380 61. The Declaration of his Highness William Henry by the Grace of God Prince of Orange c. of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of England for preserving of the Protestant Religion and for restoring the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland 420 62. His Highnesses Additional Declaration 426 63. The then supposed Third Declaration of his Royal Highness pretended to be signed at his head Quarters at Sherborn-Castle November 28. 1688. but was written by another Person tho yet unknown 427 64. The Reverend Mr. Samuel Johnson's Paper in the year 1686. for which he was sentenc'd by the Court of Kings-Bench Sir Edward Herbert being Lord Chief Justice and Sir Francis Wythens pronouncing the Sentence to stand Three times on the Pillory and to be whipp'd from Newgate to Tyburn which barbarous Sentence was Executed 428 65. Several Reasons for the establishment of a standing Army and Dissolving the Militia by the said Mr. Johnson 429 66. To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty the Humble Petition of William Archbishop of Canterbury and divers of the suffragan Bishops of that Province then present with him in behalf of themselves and others of their absent Brethren and of the Clergy of their respective Diocesses with His Majesty's Answer 430 67. The Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the calling of a free Parliament together with His Majesty's Gracious Answer to their Lordships Ib. 68. The Prince of Orange's Letter to the English Army 431 69. Prince George his Letter to the King 432 70. The Lord Churchill's Letter to the King 432 71. The Princess Ann of Denmark's Letter to the Queen 433 72. A Memorial of the Protestants of the Church of England presented to their Royal Hignesses the Prince and Princess of Orange 433 73. Admiral Herbert's Letter to all Commanders of Ships and Seamen in His Majesty's Fleet. 434 74. The Lord Delamere's Speech 434 75. An Engagement of the Noblemen Knights and Gentlemen at Exeter to assist the Prince of Orange in the defence of the Protestant Religion Laws and Liberties of the People of England Scotland and Ireland 435 76. The Declaration of the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty at the Rendezvouz at Nottingham November 22. 1688. 436 77. His Grace the Duke of Norfolk's Speech to the Mayor of Norwich on the 1st of December in the Market-place of Norwich 437 78. The Speech of the Prince of Orange to some principal Gentlemen of Somersetshire and Dorsetshire on their coming to join his Highness at Exeter Novemb. 15. 1688. 437 79. The True Copy of a Paper delivered by the Lord Devonshire to the Mayor of Darby where he Quartered Novemb. 21. 1688. 438 80. A Letter from a Gentleman at Kings-Lynn Decemb. 7. 1688. to his Friend in London With an Address to his Grace the most Noble Henry Duke of Norfolk Lord Marshall of England Ibid. 81. His Grace's Answer with another Letter from Lynn-Regis giving the D. of Norfolk's 2d Speech there Decemb. 10. 1688. 439 82. The Declaration of the Lord 's Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guild-Hall Decemb. 11. 1688. Ibid. 83. A Paper delivered to his Highness the Prince of Orange by the Commissioners sent by His Majesty to treat with him and his Highness's Answer 1688. 440 84. The Recorder of Bristoll's Speech to his Highness the Prince of Orange Monday Jan. 7. 1688. 441. 85. The Humble Address of the Lieutenancy of the City of London to his Highness the Prince of Orange Decemb. 12. 1688. 442 86. The Humble Address of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common-Council Assembled to his Highness the Prince of Orange 443 87. The Speech of Sir Geo. Treby Knight Recorder of the Honourable City of London to his Highness the Prince of Orange Decemb. 20. 1688. Ibid. 88. His Highness the Prince of Orange's Speech to the Scotch Lords and Gentlemen with their Advice and his Highness's Answer with a true Account of what past at their meeting in the Council Chamber at White-Hall Jan. 7. 1688 9. 444 89. The Emperor of Germany's Account of K. James's Misgovernment in joining with the K. of France the Common Enemy of Christendom in his Letter to K. James 446 90. The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster concerning the Misgovernment of K. James and filling up the Throne Presented to K. William and Q. Mary by the Right Honourable the Marquess of Hallifax Speaker to the House of Lords with His Majesty's Most Gracious Answer thereunto 447 91. A Proclamation Declaring William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange to be King and Queen of England France and Ireland c. 449 92. The Declaration of the Estates of Scotland concerning the Misgovernment of K. James the 7th
by Hundreds of Thousands at once 4. Because the Dragooners have made more Converts than all the Bishops and Clergy of France 5. The Parliament ought to establish one standing Army at the least because indeed there will be need of Two that one of them may defend the People from the other 6. Because it is a thousand pities that a brave Popish Army should be a Riot 7. Unless it be Established by Act of Parliament The Justices of Peace will be forced to suppress it in their own Defence for they will be loth to forfeit an hundred Pounds every day they rise out of Complement to a Popish Rout. 13 H. 4. c. 7. 2 H. 5. c. 8. 8. Because a Popish Army is a Nullity For all Papists are utterly disabled and punishable besides from bearing any Office in Camp Troop Band or Company of Soldiers and are so far disarmed by Law that they cannot wear a Sword so much as in their Defence without the allowance of four Justices of the Peace of the County And then upon a March they will be perfectly Inchanted for they are not able to stir above five Miles from their own Dwelling-house 3. Jac. 5. Sect. 8.27 28 29.35 Eliz. 2.3 Jac. 5. Sect. 7. 9. Because Persons utterly disabled by Law are utterly Unauthorized and therefore the void Commissions of Killing and Slaying in the Hands of Papists can only enable them to Massacre and Murder To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and divers of the Suffragan Bishops of that Province now present with him in behalf of themselves and others of their absent Brethren and of the Clergy of their respective Diocesses Humbly sheweth THAT the great averseness they find in themselves to the distributing and publishing in all their Churches your Majesty's late Declaration for Liberty of Conscience proceeds neither from any want of Duty and Obedience to your Majesty our Holy Mother the Church of England being both in her Principles and in her constant Practice unquestionably Loyal and having to her great Honour been more than once publickly acknowledg'd to be so by your Gracious Majesty Nor yet from any want of due tenderness to Dissenters in relation to whom they are willing to come to such a Temper as shall be thought fit when that Matter shall be considered and settled in Parliament and Convocation But among many other Considerations from this especially because that Declaration is founded upon such a Dispensing Power as has been often declared Illegal in Parliament and particularly in the years 1662 and 1672. and in the beginning of your Majesty's Reign and is a matter of so great Moment and Consequence to the whole Nation both in Church and State that your Petitioners cannot in Prudence Honour or Conscience so far make themselves Parties to it as the distribution of it all over the Nation and the solemn Publication of it once and again even in God's House and in the Time of his Divine Service must amount to in common and reasonable Construction Your Petitioners therefore most Humbly and Earnestly beseech your Majesty that you will be ciously pleased not to insist upon their Distributing and Reading your Majesty's said Declaration And Your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever Pray Will. Cant. Will. Asaph Fr Ely Jo. Cicestr Tho. Bathon Wellen. Tho. Peterburgen Jonath Bristol His Majesties Answer was to this effect I Have heard of this before but did not believe it I did not expect this from the Church of England especially from some of you If I change my Mind you shall hear from me if not I expect my Command shall be obeyed The PETITION of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the Calling of a Free Parliament Together with his Majesty's Gracious Answer to their Lordships To the KING 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whose Names are subscribed May it please your Majesty WE your Majesty's most loyal Subjects in a deep sense of the Miseries of a War now breaking forth in the Bowels of this your Kingdom and of the Danger to which your Majesty's Sacred Person is thereby like to be exposed and also of the Distractions of your People by reason of their present Grievances do think our selves bound in Conscience of the duty we owe to God and our holy Religion to your Majesty and our Country most humbly offer to your Majesty That in our Opinion the only visible Way to preserve your Majesty and this your Kingdom would be the Calling of a Parliament Regular and Free in all its Circumstances We therefore do most earnestly beseech your Majesty That you would be graciously pleased with all speed to call such a Parliament wherein we shall be most ready to promote such Counsels and Resolutions of Peace and Settlement in Church and State as may conduce to your Majesty's Honour and Safety and to the quieting the Minds of your People We do likewise humbly beseech your Majesty in the mean time to use such means for the preventing the Effusion of Christian Blood as to your Majesty shall seem most meet And your Petitioners shall ever pray c. W. Cant. Grafton Ormond Dorset Clare Clarendon Burlington Anglesey Rochester Newport Nom. Ebor. W. Asaph Fran. Ely Tho. Roffen Tho. Petriburg Tho. Oxon. Paget Chandois Osulston Presented by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Arch-Bishop of York Elect the Bishop of Ely and the Bishop of Rochester the 17th of November 1688. His Majesty's most Gracious Answer My LORDS What You ask of Me I most passionately desire And I promise You upon the Faith of a King That I will have a Parliament and such an One as You ask for as soon as ever the Prince of Orange has quitted this Realm For How is it possible a Parliament should be Free in all its Circumstances as You Petition for whil'st an Enemy is in the Kingdom and can make a Return of near an Hundred Voices The Lords Petition with the King's Answer may be printed Novemb. 29. 1688. The P. O.'s Letter to the English Army Gentlemen and Friends WE have given you so full and so true an Account of Our Intentions in this Expedition in Our Declaration that as We can add nothing to it so We are sure you can desire nothing more of us We are come to preserve your Religion and to restore and establish your Liberties and Properties and therefore We cannot suffer Our selves to doubt but that all true English men will come and concur with Us in Our desire to secure these Nations from POPERY and SLAVERY You must all plainly see that you are only made use of as Instruments to enslave the Nation and ruin the Protestant Religion and when that is done you may judge what ye your selves ought to expect both from the cashiering of all the Protestant and English Officers and Soldiers in Ireland and by the Irish Soldiers being brought over to be put in your places
and Corporations throughout England were generally so well satisfied with the Proceedings of the Honourable House of Commons in the last Parliament That as soon as they heard of the Dissolution they Resolved to chuse the very same respective Persons again and contriv'd to make their Elections without putting the Gentlemen chosen to any Charge Thereby to crush that Pernicious Custom of over-ruling Debauchery at Choice of Members which had not only scandaliz'd the Nation but almost impoyson'd and destroyed the very Constitution of our Parliaments A Letter from the famous Town of Kingston upon Hull to Sir Michael Wharton Kt. and William Gee Esq Burgesses for that Town in the late Parliament Worthy Gentlemen WE understand you have signified to us our Magistrates your willingness to represent in the ensuing Parliament and that they have gratefully accepted of your generous Offer which if they had communicated to us our joynt compliance would have been readily manifested for we are so sensible of your integrity in the late Parliament by your indefatigable care and pains in endeavouring the security of His Majesties Sacred Person as also our Religion and Property that we cannot but rejoyce that you are pleased again to offer us that kindness which your former good Service hath engaged us to become Suitors for We do therefore return you our hearty thanks and you may be confident without your appearance or the least charge to have all our Suffrages Nemine contradicente and will as our Obligations bind us stand by your Proceedings as becomes Loyal Subjects and true Englishmen subscribing our selves Your obliged and affectionate Friends and Servants c. Which was subscribed by Matthew Johnson Esq Sheriff of the said Town and 122 more of the most Eminent Burgesses and Electors Another Letter from Lewis in Sussex on the like Occasion To their late Worthy Representatives Richard Bridger and Thomas Pellam Esquires Gentlemen WE are sensible of the great Trouble and Charge you have been at as our Representatives and of your great Care and Constancy for which we return you our hearty Thanks with our earnest Request that you would be pleased once more to favour us in the same capacity And you will thereby much Oblige Your Faithful Friends and Servants This was Subscribed by near 150 of the Inhabitants of Lewis aforesaid On the 4th of February The City of London Assembled in Common-Hall consisting of several Thousand Livery-Men having by an Unanimous Voice Elected their Old Representatives Returned them their Thanks in a Paper there Publickly Read and Approved of with a General Consent The Address of the City of London To the Honoured Sir Robert Clayton Knight Thomas Pilkington Alderman Sir Thomas Player Knight and William Love Esq late and now chosen Members of Parliament for this Honourable City of London WE the Citizens of this City in Common-Hall Assembled having Experienced the great and manifold Services of you our Representatives in the Two last Parliaments by your most faithful and unwearied Endeavours to Search into and discover the depth of the horrid and hellish Popish Plots to preserve His Majesty's Royal Person the Protestant Religion and the well established Government of this Realm to secure the Meeting and Sitting of frequent Parliaments to Assert our undoubted Rights of Petitioning and to punish such who would have Betrayed those Rights to promote the happy and long-wished for Union amongst all His Majesty's Protestant Subjects to Repeal the 35th of Elizabeth and the Corporation-Act and especially for what Progress hath been made towards the Exclusion of all Popish Successors and particularly of James Duke of York whom the Commons of England in the two last Parliaments have Declar'd and we are greatly sensible is the Principal Cause of all the Ruine and Misery impending these Kingdoms in general and this City in particular For all which and other your constant and faithful Management of our Affairs in Parliament we offer and return to you our most hearty Thanks being confidently assur'd that you will not consent to the granting any Money-Sudply until you have effectually Secur'd us against Popery and Arbitrary Power Resolving by Divine Assistance in pursuance of the same Ends to stand by you with our Lives and Fortunes And likewise there was offered another Paper directed to the Sheriffs purporting their Thanks to the several Noble Peers for their late Petition and Advice to His Majesty which was as followeth To the Worshipful Slingsby Bethel and Henry Cornish Esquires Sheriffs of the City of London and Westminster WE the Citizens of the said City in Common-Hall Assembled having read and diligently perus'd the late Petition and Advice of several Noble Peers of this Realm to His Majesty whose Counsels we humbly conceive are in this unhappy Juncture highly seasonable and greatly tending to the Safety of these Kingdoms We do therefore make it our most hearty Request that you in the Name of this Common-Hall will return to the Right Honourable the Earl of Essex and by him to the rest of those Noble Peers the Grateful Acknowledgment of this Assembly Which being Read and Approved of by a General Acclamation the Sheriffs promised to give their Lordships the Thanks of the Common-Hall in pursuance of their Request The Address of the City of Westminster Febr. 10. 1680 1. To the Honoured Sir William Poultney and Sir William Waller Knights Unanimously Elected Members of the ensuing Parliament for the Ancient City of Westminster WE the Inhabitants of this City and the Liberties thereof Assembled retaining a most grateful and indelible Sence of your prudent Zeal in the late Parliament in searching into the depth of the horrid and hellish Plots of the Papists against His Majesty's Royal Person the Protestant Religion and the Government of the Realm and in endeavouring to bring the Authors of Wicked Counsels to condign punishment And remembring also your faithful discharge of that great Trust reposed in you in vindicating our undoubted Right of Petitioning His Majesty That Parliaments may Sit for the Redress of our Grievances which Hereditary Priviledge some Bad Men would have wrested out of our Hands upon whom you have set such a just Brand of Ignominy as may deter them from the like Attempts for the time to come And further reflecting upon your vigorous Endeavours to secure to us and our Posterity the Profession of the True Religion by those Just Legal and Necessary Expedients which the great Wisdom of the Two last Parliaments fixed upon and adhered to Do find our selves obliged to make our open Acknowledgement of and to return our hearty Thanks for your eminent Integrity and Faithfulness your indefatigable Labour and Pains in the Premises not once questioning but you will maintain the same good Spirit and Zeal to secure His Majesty's Royal Person and to preserve to us the Protestant Religion wherein all good Subjects have an Interest against the secret and subtil Contrivances and open Assaults of the Common Enemy as also our Civil Rights and Properties
called The Publick Occurrences which came out to day and cannot but set you right as to his News about the Reading of the Declaration on Sunday He tells you That several Divines of the Church of England in and about this City eminent for their Piety and Moderation did yesterday Read his Majesties late Declaration in their Churches according to the Order in that behalf but some to the great surprize of their Parishoners were pleased to decline it You in the Country are from this Account to believe that it was Read here by the generality of the Clergie and by the eminent Men among them But I can and do assure you that this is one of the most impudent Lyes that ever was Printed For as to this City which hath above a Hundred Parishes in it it was Read only in Four or Five Churches all the rest and best of the Clergy refusing it every where I will spare their Names who read it but should I mention them it would make you who knows this City a little heartily to deride H. C's Account of them And for the Surprize he talks of the contrary of it is so true that in Woodstreet where it was read by one Dr. M. the People generally went out of the Church This I tell you that you may be provided for the future against such an Impudent Lyar who for Bread 〈…〉 and put about the Nation the falfest of things I am Yours AN ANSWER To the City Minister's LETTER from his Country Friend SIR IT is not for me now to acknowledge my private Debt to you for the favour of your Letter since the publick is as much concern'd in it as I and if I may judge of all by the compass of my Neighbourhood and Acquaintance I may assure you they are not insensible of your Obligation though they are ignorant of the Author The Country as far as my Intelligence reaches has followed the Example of the City and refused to read the Declaration of Indulgence according to a certain Order said to be the Kings which we in the Country can scarce believe to be His. For it has neither been signified to the Ordinaries according to the usual manner nor could those that dispersed it give any Account whence it came to them I have heard indeed that an Act of Council concerning it has been published in the Gazette which I never saw and if I had I should scarce have thought Authentick For I always took that Paper as for its Authority to have been all of a piece and that we were no more bound to take notice of any Order published there under any penalty than we are to believe all the News from Poland or Constantinople Nay though this Order had come to us in due form yet had we had great reason to suspect something of surreption and surprize upon his Majesty in this matter and that it could not proceed from his Majesty's free and full consent for we cannot yet forget his repeated professions of kindness to us and of satisfaction in our Principles and Duty and having done nothing since which might forfeit his goed Opinion we are unwilling to believe that it is His Majesties own mind and pleasure to loud us with such an Order as we cannot execute with any congruity safety or good Conscience I. As to his Majesties Declaration We of all his Majesties Subjects are the least concern'd in it and with all duty be it spoken we cannot see that our legal Establishment receives any Addition by this Declaration For there are yet thanks be to God no Penal Laws to which our Congregations are obnoxious and therefore we do not stand in need of any Toleration Yet it is upon us only that the Reading of it is imposed An Act which cannot well be construed otherwise than as a soliciting and tempting our own people to forsake our Communion If this Declaration must needs be read in any Religious Assemblies ' in reason surely it should be in those who wholly owe their substance to it It would better have become the Roman than the Protestan Chappels But in the Koman Church Indulgence hath another signification and belongs to those only that frequent their Churches but not to such as leave them for with them this is the only sin that is not capable of Indulgence But the Priests desire to be excus'd lest while they proclaim Toleration to others they bring an Interdict upon themselves Or why I pray was not Father Pen Ordered to publish it in his Meetings Or the worthy Mr. Lob the reputed Father of this Project why had not he the benefit of his own Invention and a Patent for being the sole Publisher of it within his own Pound Or why was not my Lord Mayor's private and elect Congregation thought worthy of so great a grace Surely it is not to draw upon us the envy of the Distenters that the honour of publishing this Declaration is impos'd upon us alone when it belongs to all other Communions in the Kingdom except our own And it we refuse it I hope it will be imputed to our Modesty for we are not ambitious of being impertinent or busie bodies in other mens matters A certain person much greaten than he deserves but perhaps not so high is said to have used the Words of Rabshaketh upon this occasion That the Church of England Clergy should eat their own Dung Isa 36.12 This sentence might better have become a Messenger of the King of Affyria than a pretended Counsellour of our own Prince though some make a question to which King he belongs But God be thanked we are not yet so straitly besieg'd as to be reduc'd to that extremity and though by the permission of God We should be reduc'd to so miserable a Condition We should I hope by the Grace of God be content to endure that and worse extremities if possible rather than Betray or Surrender the City of God But before that comes it is possible that the Throat that belch'd out this Nasty Insolence may be stopp'd with something which it cannot swallow II. Besides there are some passages in the Declaration which in Conscience we cannot read to our People though it be in the King's Name for among others we are to Read these Words We cannot but heartily wish as will easily be believed that all the People of our Dominions were Members of the Catholick Church Our People know too well the English of this and could not but be strangely surpriz'd to hear us tell them that it would be an acceptable thing to the King that they should leave the Truth and our Communion and turn Papists The Wish of a King when solemnly Declared is no light insignificant thing but has real influence and effect upon the minds of Men. It was but a Wish of Henry the Second that cut off F. Becket then Archbishop of Canterbury Councils and Courts of Justice too often bend to a King's Wishes though against their own
are forced none will abide you And said further That there was a Man beyond sea had prophesied That in sixty six if the King did not settle the Romish Religion in England he would be banished out of the Kingdom and all his Posterity And Collins further said That he being lately turned a Roman Catholick he would not be a Protestant for all the World He wished Graunger again in the hearing of his Wife which he affirmed to the Committee to turn his Religion for all the said Prophesie would come to pass in Sixty six Robert Holloway of Darking aforesaid informed That one Stephen Griffin a Papist said to him That all the bloud that had been shed in the late civil War was nothing to that which would be shed this year in England Holloway demanded a reason for these words in regard the Kingdom was in peace and no likelihood of trouble and said Do you Papists intend to rise and cut our throats when we are asleep Griffin answered That 's no matter if you live you shall see it Ferdinand de Massido a Portuguese and some Years since a Romish Priest but turning Protestant Informed That one Father Taff a Jesuite did the last year tell him at Paris That if all England did not return to the Church of Rome they should all be destroyed the next Year Mr. Samuel Cottman of the Middle-Temple Barister Informed That about two Years since one Mr. Jeviston a Popish Priest and called by the Name of Father Garret did perswade him to turn Papist and he should want neither Profit nor Preferment Mr. Cottman objected that he intended to practise the Law which he could not do if he turned Papist because he must take the Oath of Supremacy at his being called to the Bar and if he were a Papist he must not take it Mr. Jeviston replied Why not take the Oath It is an unlawful Oath and void ipso facto And after some pause said further First take the Oath and then I will convert you He said further The King will not own ' himself to be Head of the Church And said further You in England that set up the Dutch to destroy our Religion shall find that they shall be the Men to PULL DOWN YOURS Mr. Stanley an Officer to the Duke of Ormond in Ireland Informed That coming out of Ireland with one Oriel who owned himself of the Order of the Jesuites and commissioned from the Pope to be Lord Primate of Ireland and Archbishop of Armah and falling into some Discourse with him he told him That there had been a Difference between him and some other of the Jesuites in Ireland and that part of the Occasion was that one Father Walsh and some other of the Jesuites there did dispense with the Papists in Ireland to take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy by virtue of a standing Commission from the Pope which he had to do it during this King's Life and Oriel thought they ought not to do it by virtue of the standing Commission but should take a new Commission from the Pope every Year to do it And likewise That he brought eight Boys out of Ireland whom he intended to carry to Flanders to breed up in some of the Colledges there And at his taking Shipping to go for Flanders he shaked his Foot towards England terming it Egypt and said He would not return into England till he came with 50 thousand Men at his heels A French Merchant being a Papist living in St. Michael's Lane London writes in a Letter to his Friend That a great number of Men and Arms were ready here if those he wrote to were ready there He being upon the Intercepting of this Letter searched forty Fire-locks were found in his House ready loaden which were carried to Fishmongers-Hall a Month or more before the Fire and he committed to Prison but since released A Poor Woman retaining to one Belson's House a Papist about Darking in Surrey was follicited that she and her husband would turn Roman Catholicks which if they did voluntarily Now they would be accepted of but if they staid a little longer they would be forced whether they would or no and then they would not be esteemed This was deposed before Sir Adam Brown a Member of Parliament A Complaint being made against a Sugar-Baker at Fox-hall his House was searched by Lieutenant Collonel Luntly who found there several Guns with such Locks as no English-man who was at the taking of them could discharge together with Brass Blunderbusses and Fire-works of a furious and burning nature Trial being made of a small part of them the Materials were discerned to be Sulphur Aquavitae and Gun-powder whatever else In a Letter to Sir John Frederick and Mr. Nathanail Heron from Horsham in Sussex the 8th of September 1666. Subscibed Henry Chowne Wherein is mentioned that the said Henry Chowne had thoughts to come to London that week but that they were in Distraction there concerning the Papists fearing they would shew themselves all that day And that he had been to search a Papist's House within six miles of that place He with another Justice of Peace met the Gentleman's Brother who is a Priest going to London whom they searched and found a Letter about him which he had received that Morning from his Sister twenty miles off from him wherein is expressed That a great Business is in hand not to be committed to Paper as the times be Your Committee have thought fit to give no Opinion upon these Informations but leave the matter of Fact to your Judgments I am commanded to tell you That your Committee have several other things of this nature under their Inquiry AS a further Instance of the audacious and insolent Behaviour of these Popish Recusants take the following Copy of Verses made and then scattered abroad by some of their Party in Westminster-Hall and several other places about the City and elsewhere in the Kingdom COvre la feu ye Hugonots That have so branded us with Plots And henceforth no more Bonfires make Till ye arrive the Stygian Lakeâ— For down ye must ye Hereticks For all your hopes in sixty six The hand against you is so steady Your Babylon is faln already And if you will avoid that hap Return into your Mothers lap The Devil a Mercy is for those That Holy Mother-Church oppose Let not your Clergy you betray Great Eyes are ope and see the way Return in time if you will save Your Souls your Lives or ought you have And if you live till sixty seven Confess you had fair Warning given Then see in time or ay be blind Short time will shew you what 's behind Dated the 5th Day of November in the Year 1666. and the First Year of the Restoration of the Church of Rome in England NOt long after the Burning of London Mr. Brook Bridges a young gentleman of the Temple as he was going to attend Divine Service in the Temple-Church in a Pew there
perceive it not this is the sore evil we are under For I would not doubt the Countries carrying it from the Court in every Vote let the Courtiers use all the Art they could would the Country Gentlemen but give themselves the trouble to enform their understandings a little and not suffer themselves to be hurried by a heedless Inadvertency into Vulgar Notions Which if well examined are directly contrary to their honest Intentions for lack of which they totally mistake their Interests fall foul on their Friends support their Enemies and carry on the Designs of the Court whilst they aim at the Service of their Country For if they would take the pains but to think what is the greatest Enemy in the World English Law and Liberty always had still hath and ever must have It may be the result of such a Thought would say it was Encroaching Prerogative Well if then they would but beg from themselves but so much Seriousness as to think this second Thought to check this Prerogative which is so dangerous an Enemy to our Laws and Liberties peradventure that Thought would answer In suppressing all they could its Creatures and Dependants and supporting such whose Interest it is to keep Prerogative within its just bounds Now could they but be prevail'd with but to think a third Thought it would land them at the full and satisfactory Solution of the Question and will hold in every thing But I will put it in a Case wherein we are most apt to Err and wherein we reckon it no less than Piety to play the Fool to the end you may see how miserably we are cheated and abused by sucking in the untried Notions that Education the Arts of others or our own Ignorance have imposed upon us The third Thought therefore shall be this Which are most the Creatures and Supporters of boundless Prerogative Prelates or Dissenting Protestants The Answer to which must and can be no otherwise The Prelates Well then if we would now reduce this to Practise and say The greatest Friends to Prerogative are the Prelates the greatest Enemies to our Laws and Liberties is Prerogative The only way therefore to restrain Prerogative is to do What To fortifie and strengthen the Yoke of the Prelates over the Neck of the People No Surely this were an odd and a barbarous kind of reasoning But to give Liberty to Dissenting Protestants as the best means to keep up the Ballance against boundless Prerogative For these must and never can be otherwise unless by Accident and by Mistake than Friends to Liberty But the Prelates neither are nor can be otherwise then Creature to Prerogative for all their Promotions Dignities and Domination depends upon it The same might be said concerning the only antient and true Strength of the Nation the Legal Militia and a Standing Army The Militia must and can never be otherwise than for English Liberty ' cause else it doth destroy it self but a Standing Force can be for nothing but Prerogative by whom it hath its idle Living and Subsistance I could instance also in many other Particulars but our Inadvertency in this is Demonstration enough how much we are cheated by the common and hackney Notions imposed upon us and this is almost the cause of all the Error we commit For missing our true Footing you see we have run in the mistaken Notion of being for the Church so long till we have almost destroyed the State and advanced Prerogative so much by suppressing Nonconformity that it 's well nigh beyond our reach or power to put a check to it and had not Time and but an indifferent Observation shewed us how much we were abused in this matter and that a Lay-Conformist and a Fanatick can live as quietly and neighbourly together would the Prelates but suffer them as any in the world we had ruined our selves past all recovery For by our â—ouying up the Bishops in their harsh and irreconcilable Spirit instead of healing we have so fed and nourished the Discontents throughout the Kingdom that I think nothing keeps the Fire from Flaming out a fresh in another intestine War but the bare Circumstance of Opportunity only and how long that will be able to restrain Passions that are made wild by Oppression is worthy a very serious Consideration and therefore there is hardly any thing more a wonder to wise men then to see the Clergy run at this rate upon the Dissenters wherefore since the Nonconformists have given so large and ample a Testimony of their willingness to live Peaceably if yet notwithstanding the Clergy will not suffer them to be quiet in their Families and their Houses I doubt they may at one time or other drive them into the Field and then it may exceed their Divine Art to conjure them down again for he sees but little that sees not the English Temper is better to be led then driven And therefore I think it would not be more a Vanity to compel the Ladies to wear Queen Elizabeths Ruff then to force the Nonconformists to be drest in her Religion Nor yet are these all the Arts we are under For we have a Gang that Huff and bear themselves high on the Country side but earn only for the Court these lay out their Craft in putting the House upon little trifling things and spend and waste the Mettle thereof upon such pittiful Pickadilloes as 't is next to shame for an English Parliament so much as to mention These start a fierce Dispute about some little Matter and keep a bluster as if none were such faithful Patriots as they when they do it on purpose only to while out the Time and thin the House by tiring the honest Country Gentry in so tedious fruitless and trifling Attendance Do but move things worthy a Parliament as that we may have our â—â—d known Rights of Annual Parliaments ascertained That none that are or shall be bribed by any Place or Office shall ever sit in this House That Parliaments ought not to be Prorogued Adjourned or Dissolved till all Petitions are heard and the Grievances of the People redressed with many things more of as great Importance O then forsooth their pretended Loyalty which in plain English is easily understood will not abide such unmannerly and clownish Debates as these and twenty such little shreds of Nonsence are impertinently urged instead of Argument But further these Countrey-Court Engines after they have taken the Measures of the House at the opening of every Session by our Thanks for the gracious Speech which being the true Pulse of the House if it happen to come so hard as speaks us but faint and cool to the one thing necessary the matter of Money then they know what will follow that the Court will get no Grist that Sessions and though the Court in Indignation could turn them home on the Morrow yet it must consult its Reputation a little restrain its Resentments and suffer them to sit about a six Weeks
Factious Design with which they were charged by the said Letter This being through the Influence of the Lord Hatton refused by the Privy Council they dispatched a Gentleman to the Duke of Lauderdale with Letters and Instructions full of Respect and Submission to his Grace The Gentleman at his first arrival found Duke Lauderdale very kind and was made believe he should be quickly dispatched with Answers according to his Desire but some Delays having fallen in the Duke of Lauderdale fell likewise upon thoughts of getting Money from the Town upon this occasion and therefore pretending still more and more kindness to the said Gentleman he did first by some Insinuations let fall to him his expectation and at last flatly asked him if he had not brought a heavy Purse with him which when he understood he was not to expect he changed his Method and grew harsher and having detained him Five or Six Weeks he the said Duke entered into Consultation with his old Friend Sir Andrew Ramsey how to order the Affair By his Advice he did write a Letter and sent Proposals to the said Town That they should give Bond and Security That the Townsmen should live regularly as to all matters Ecclesiastical in the largest extent as the same is determined by the late Acts of Parliament and to keep the Town free of all sorts of Tumults either of Man or Woman Judging that this was impossible for them to perform and unfavourable to attempt and that therefore it would oblige them to make offers of Money This Letter was all the Gentleman could obtain and having gone back to Scotland and delivered it to the Magistrates they were so far from being carried in the Design that they were glad of that opportunity to witness their Zeal to serve Your Majesty for they did very heartily comply with what was proposed concerning the Bonds and Securities demanded and immediately urged that Your Majesties Ofcers and Lawyers would cause draw such Bonds and Securities as was fit for the purpose offering good Security for great summs of Money for the performance But this not being the thing truly intended their ready Compliance with it set them yet farther off from their desired Settlement and served for no other intent than to cause the Lord Hatton to double his diligence to find out new means to mollest them to which end it was alledged by him that they had of old forfeited their Priviledges and Liberties by some great Misdemeanour and that therefore they had not right to chuse their own Magistrates for which he would needs have their Records searched and accordingly they themselves with their Books and Records were in a most unusual manner brought often before him and his Friends though they had not Authority for it to the great Disturbance and Annoyance of the Citizens by being abundantly jealous of their Liberties were with no small care kept within the due Bounds of Moderation by the Loyalty and Vigilancy of their Magistrates They the said Magistrates finding how they were used at home by the Lord Hatton did again apply themselves to the Duke of Lauderdale both by private Letters to the Duke of Lauderdale and his Dutchess from some of the most eminent of them full of Assurances of particular Respect to their Graces and by a publick Letter to him from the whole Town-Council offering Bond and Security to him in the terms proposed by his fore-mentioned Letter But this could not prevail it being objected to them from some frivolous things the Lord Hatton had scraped together out of their old Records that they had lost their Liberties and that the right of chusing their Magistrates did no more belong to them Then did they produce their Charters and did convincingly clear all Mistakes and evidently make appear that the right of chusing their own Magistrates did remain to them undoubtedly and intirely All these things being cleared and open they expected to be restored to the free exercise of their Election in their accustomed manner They were still kept off with Delayes until the Lord Hatton in pursuance of his Design fell a practising with some few of themselves who did undertake with his assistance to get such Elected as were fit for his ends whereupon he writes to his Brother the Duke of Lauderdale to move Your Majesty for a Letter and accordingly the Letter was procured from Your Majesty upon the Seventh of August 75 wherein Your Majesty after reciting Your former Orders in that Affair did declare that You were well informed of their Obedience to Your Commands and of their dutiful Carriage in Your Concerns and therefore ordained them the next day after the Receipt of the Letter to convene their whole Council after their accustomed manner and out of the Lists already made to Elect the Lord Provost Bailies and other Officers According to which Letter they did the next day proceed to their Elections but instead of those whom the Lord Hatton expected they would have chosen they did Elect some men of good Fortunes and Integrity not at all fit for his purpose these who had ingaged to him not being men of that esteem or influence as to be able to carry his Design as they had undertaken The new Magistrates and Council did immediately after their Election acquaint Your Majesty with their Procedure and gave Your Majesty great Acknowledgments and Assurances of their care of the Peace of the Town and of Your Majesty's Service in all Matters both Ecclesiastical and Civil The said Lord Hatton being exceedingly inraged at this Act of theirs did by Advice of Sir George Mackynge now Your Majesties Advocate send a Letter to the Duke of Lauderdale to which he procured Your Majesties Hand upon the 25th of the same month of August by which Your Majesty ordered Your Privy Council to intimate to the Magistrates and Town-Council that it was Your Royal Pleasure that there should be turned out of the Town-Council and declared incapable of any Publique Trust in the said Town Twelve of the most eminent of the same Men with whom your Majesty had exprest your self so well pleased and whose Actings your Majesty had approved by your Letter of the Seventh of the said Month. This was accordingly executed by the Privy-Council without ever so much as calling before them the said Persons though great Crimes were laid to their Charge as being Factious Persons and mis-representing your Majesty's Proceedings without mentioning any particular Fact of theirs which could import any such Crime And though they be threatned by the said Letter to be pursued for these great Crimes and that your Majesty's Advocate is commanded in the same to insist against them yet could they never obtain from your Majesty's Privy-Council that they should be tryed for these things though by a Petition signed by the whole Twelve they did represent the great Prejudice they sustained both in their Reputation and Trade by being kept under such Threatnings and therefore did humbly offer themselves to
the more useless to both and the less comfortable to my self His Highness said he knew no more then what he had said the Earl then said it was late and he would wiat on his Highness some other time about these matters But the thing that at present presses says the Earl is That I hear one of the Clerks of Council is appointed to tell me to be at the Council to morrow I conceive to take the Test Pray what is the haste may not I with Your Highnesses favour have the time allowed by the Act of Parliament His Highness said No. The Earl urged it again but in vain And all the delay he could obtain was till Thursday the Third of November the next Council day in course The Earl said he was the less fond of the Test that he found that some that refused it were still in favour and others that had taken it turned out as the Register at which His Highness only laught But Sir said the Earl how comes Your Highness to press the Test so hastily Sure there are some things in it Your Highness doth not â—ver much like Then said His Highness angerly and in a passion most true that Test was brought into the Parliament without the Confession of Faith But the late President caused put in the Confession which makes it such as no honest Man can take it The Earl said he had the more reason to advise Whereby you may see whether his Highness then thought the Confession was to be Sworn to in the Test or not After this the Earl waited several times on his Highness and made new attempts for the favour of a delay but with no success What passed in private shall not be repeated except so far as is absolutely necessary to evince the Earl his innocency and to shew that in what he did he had no ill design nor did in the least prevaricate or give any offence willingly but was ready to comply as far as he could with a good conscience It was in this interval that the Earl spoke with the Bishop of Edinburgh and saw his Vindication of the Test and all the Explanations I here send you only the Councils explanation was not yet thought on And that all the Bishop did then urge the Earl with beyond what is in his Vindication was to have a care of a noble Family and to tell him that the opposing the exception of the Kings Sons and Brothers from taking the Test had fired the kiln At the last upon Wednesday the second of November late the Earl waited on his Highness and did in the most humble and easie expressions he could devise decline the present taking of the Test but if his Highness would needs have a present answer he beg'd his favour that he would accept of his refusing it in private which was denied again Then he said if his Highness would allow him time to go home and consider he would either give satisfaction or the time prescribed by the Act of Parliament would elapse and so he would go off in course and without noise But this also his Highness absolutely refused Upon which the Earl asked what good his appearing in Council to refuse there would do His Highness was pleased to answer that he needed not appear but to employ some friend to speak for him and his Highness himself named one This the Earl yielded to as the best of a bad choice and said he should either use the person named by his Highness or some other Relation that were a Councellor and in Town And in compliance with his Highness pleasure the next morning the Earl drew a Letter for a Warrant to the same Person his Highness had named for declaring his mind in Council wherein he exprest his constant resolution to continue a true Protestant and Loyal Subject which were the true ends of the Test But the Letter concluding on a delay of taking the Oath and his Highness having given some indication how little pleasing that office was to him neither that friend nor any other would by any means accept of it Upon this the Earl drew a second and shorter Letter to any that should that day preside in Council but after much discourse it being suggested that an explanation would be allowed and the shorter the better the Earl first drew one suitable to his own thoughts and it being thought too long did instantly shorten it and put it into his Pocket but withal said he would not offer it till he knew his Highness pleasure lest his Highness might take it ill that any had prevailed more with him then himself and therefore the Earl did refuse to go to the Council or out of his Chamber till he had his approbation A little after a Coach was sent for the Earl and it was told him in the Room without the Council-Chamber that the Bishop of Edinburgh had spoke to his Highness and signified to him that the Earl was willing to take the Test with an Explanation and that the Bishop said it would be very kindly accepted These were the express words and then and not till then the Earl went into the Council and delivered that is pronounced his Explanation close by his Highness and directly towards him so loud and audible that some in the furthest corner of the Room acknowledged they heard it Whereupon the Oath was administred and the Earl took it and his Highness with a well satisfied Countenance and the honour of a smile Commanded him to take his place And while he sat by his Highness which was his honour to do that day his Highness spake several times privately to him and always very pleasantly And the Earl hath since protested to his friends that he thinks his Highness was at the time well pleased though some others that wisht the Earl out of the Council appeared surprized and in some confusion The first thing came to be treated of in Council after the Earl had taken his Seat was the Councils Explanation at that time intended and resolved to be allowed to the Clergy only and no other and withal not to be printed To which the Earl refused to Vote which was afterwards made a ground of Challenge A little after it being the Post Night the Earl stept out and went to his Lodging and though he acknowledges he did not decline to give some friends an account of what had past yet he was so far from spreading Copies of his Explanation at taking the Oath that he flatly refused to give a kind and discreet friend then in his Chamber a Copy of it lest it might go abroad And the words being few and publickly spoke it is not strange they might be almost perfectly repeated as it 's known the Clerks pretended to do but the â—â—ings Advocate having past from the accusation of Spreading this is only mentioned to evidence how singly studious the Earl was to satisfie his own Conscience and how tender of giving offence for I can say
any thing a greater reproach on the Parliament or a greater ground of mislike to the people And whereas it is pretended That all Laws and Subsumptions should be clear and these are only inferences It is answered That there are some things which the Law can only forbid in general and there are many inferences which are as strong and natural and reproach as soon or sooner than the plainest defamations in the world do for what is openly said of reproach to the King does not wound him so much as many seditious insinuations have done in this Age and the last So that whatever was the Earls design albeit it is always conceived to be unkind to the Act against which himself debated in Parliament yet certainly the Law in such cases is only to consider what effect this may have amongst the people and therefore the Acts of Parliament that were to guard against the misconstruing of His Majesties Government do not only speak of what was designed but where a disliking may be caused and so judgeth ab effectu And consequentially to the same emergent reason it makes all things tending to the raising of dislike to be punishable by the Act 60. Parl. 6. Q. Mary and the 9. Act Parl. 20. James VI. So that the Law designed to deter all men by these indefinite and comprehensive expressions And both in this and all the Laws of Leasing-making the Judges are to consider what falls under these general and comprehensive words Nor could the Law be more special here since the makers of Reproach and Slander are so various that they could not be bound up or exprest in any Law But as it evidently appears that no man can hear the words exprest if he believe this paper but he must think the Parliament has made a very ridiculous Oath inconsistent with it self and the Protestant Religion the words allowing no other sense and having that natural tendency even as if a man would say I love such a man only in so far as he is an honest man he behooved certainly to conclude that the man was not every way honest So if your Lordships will take measures by other Parliaments or your Predecessors ye will clearly see That they thought less than this a defaming of the Government and misconstruing His Majesties proceedings For in Balmerino's Case the Justices find an humble Supplication made to the King himself to fall under these Acts now cited Albeit as that was a Supplication so it contained the greatest expressions of Loyalty and offers of Life and Fortune that could be exprest yet because it insinuates darkly That the King in the precedeing Parliament had not favoured the Protestant Religion and they were sorry he should have taken Notes with his own hands of what they said which seems to be most innocent yet he was found guilty upon those same very Acts And the Parliament 1661. found his Lordship himself guilty of Leasing-making tho he had only written a Letter to a private Friend which requires no great care nor observation but this paper which was to be a part of his own Oath does because after he had spoken of the Parliament in the first part of this Letter he thereafter added That the King would know their Tricks which words might be much more applicable to the private persons therein designed than that the words now insisted on can be capable of any such Interpretation And if either Interpretations upon pretext of exonering of Conscience or otherwise be allowed a man may easily defame as much as he pleases And have we not seen the King most defamed by Covenants entered into upon pretence to make him great and glorious by Remonstrances made to take away his Brother and best Friend upon pretence of preserving the Protestant Religion and his Sacred person And did not all who rebelled against him in the last Age declare That they thought themselves bound in duty to obey him but still as far as that could consist with their respect to the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties which made all the rest ineffectual And whereas it is pretended That by these words I take the same in as far as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion nothing more is meant but that he takes it as a true Protestant His Majesties Advocate appeals to your Lordships and all the Hearers if upon hearing this expression they should take it in this sense and not rather think that there is an inconsistency For if that were possible to be the sense what need he say at all As far as it is consistent with it self Nor had the other part As far as it is consistent with the Protestant Religion been necessary for it is either consistent with the Protestant Religion or otherwise they were Enemies to the Protestant Religion that made it Nor are any Lawyers or others in danger by pleading or writing for these are very different from and may be very easily pleaded without defaming a Law and an Oath when they go to take it But if any Lawyer should say in pleading or writing That the Test was inconsistent or which is all one that it were not to be taken by any man but so far as it was consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion no doubt this would be a crime even in pleading tho pleading has a greater allowance than deliberate swearing has And as there is nothing wherein there is not some inconveniency so the inconveniency of defaming the Government is much greater than that of any private mans hazard who needs not err except he please Whereas it is pretended That before the Earl gave in this Explication there were other Explications spread abroad and Answers read to them in Council and that the Council it self gave an Explication It is answered That if this paper be Leasing-making or misconstruing His Majesties proceedings and Treasonable as is contended then a thousand of the like offences cannot excuse it And when the King accused Noblemen Ministers and others in the year 1661. for going on in the Rebellions of that Age first with the Covenanters and then with the Usurpers it was found no Defence That the Nation was over-grown with those Crimes and that they were thought to be duties in those days Yea this were to invite men to offend in multitudes And albeit sometimes these who follow the examples of multitudes may thereby pretend this as an excuse to many yet this was never a formal defence against Guilt nor was ever the chief of the Offenders favourable on that Head And it is to be presumed That the Earl of Argyle would rather be followed by others than that he would follow any example But His Majesties Advocate does absolutely decline to debate a point that may defame a constant and standing Act of Parliament by leaving upon record a memory of its being opposed Nor were this Relevant except it could be said the Council had allowed such Explications which reflected
alledged irrelevancy thereof That in time coming all Criminal Libels shall contain that the persons complained on are Art and Part of the Crimes Libelled which shall be relevant to accuse them thereof swa that no exception or objection take away that part of the Libel in time coming He says That he finds no Act of Parliament more unreasonable for the Statutory part of that Act committing the Tryal of Art and Part to Assizers seems most unjust Seeing in committing the greatest questions of the Law to the most ignorant of the Subjects it puts a sharp Sword into the hands of blind men And the reason of this Act specified in the Narrative is likewise most inept and no ways illative c. What Reproaches What Blasphemies The Earl said not one word against any Act of Parliament But on the contrary That he was confident the Parliament intended no contradiction and that he was willing to take the Test in the Parliaments sense But here the Advocate both says and Prints it That an Act of Parliament is most unreasonable and most unjust and it's reason most inept and that it puts a sharp Sword in the hands of blind men Whereof the smallest branch is infinitely more reproachful than all can be strained out of the Earl's words But Sir Speculation is but Speculation and if the Advocate when his day comes be as able to purge himself of Practical Depravations as I am inclined to excuse all his Visionary Lapses notwithstanding of the famous Title Quod quisque juris in alterum statuorit ut ipse eodem jure utatur he shall never be the worse of my censure Murther will out Or the King's Letter justifying the Marquess of Antrim and declaring That what he did in the Irish Rebellion was by Direction from his Royal Father and Mother and for the service of the Crown Ireland Aug. 22. 1663. Ever honoured Sir LAST Thursday we came to Trial with my Lord Marquess of Antrim but according to my Fears which you always surmised to be in vain he was by the King 's Extraordinary and Peremptory Letter of Favour restored to his Estate as an Innocent Papist We proved Eight Qualifications in the Act of Settlement against him the least of which made him uncapable of being restored as Innocent We proved 1. That he was to have a hand in surprizing the Castle of Dublin in the Year 1641. 2. That he was of the Rebels Party before the 15th of September 1643. which we made appear by his hourly and frequent intercourse with Renny O Moore and many others being himself the most notorious of the said Rebels 3. That he entered into the Roman-Catholick Confederacy before the Peace in 1643. 4. That he constantly adhered to the Nuncio's Party in opposition to his Majesty's Authority 5. That he sate from time to time in the Supream Council of Kilkenny 6. That he signed that execrable Oath of Association 7. That he was Commissionated and acted as Lieutenant-General from the said Assembly at Kilkenny 8. That he declared by several Letters of his own penning himself in Conjunction with Owen Ro Oneale and a constant Opposer to the several Peaces made by the Lord Lieutenant with the Irish We were seven hours by the Clock in proving our Evidence against him but at last the King's Letter being opened and read in Court Rainsford one of the Commissioners said to us That the King's Letter on his behalf was Evidence without Exception and thereupon declared him to be an Innocent Papist This Cause Sir hath tho many Reflections hath passed upon the Commissioners before more startled the Judgments of all men than all the Tryals since the beginning of their sitting and it is very strange and wonderful to all of the Long Robe that the King should give such a Letter having divested himself of that Authority and reposed the Trust in the Commissioners for that purpose And likewise it is admired that the Commissioners having taken solemn Oaths To execute nothing but according to and in pursuance of the Act of Settlement should barely upon his Majesty's Letter declare the Marquess Innocent To be short There never was so great a Rebel that had so much favour from so good a King And it is very evident to me though young and scarce yet brought upon the stage that the consequence of these things will be very bad and if God of his extraordinary mercy do not prevent it War and if possible greater Judgments cannot be far from us where Vice is Patroniz'd and Antrim a Rebel upon Record and so lately and clearly proved one should have no other colour for his Actions but the King 's own Letter which takes all Imputations from Antrim and lays them totally upon his own Father Sir I shall by the next if possible send you over one of our Briefs against my Lord by some Friend It 's too large for a Pacquet it being no less in bulk than a Book of Martyrs I have no more at present but refer you to the King's Letter hereto annexed CHARES R. RIght Trusty and well-beloved Cousins and Counsellors c. We greet you well How far we have been from interposing on the behalf of any of our Irish Subjects who by their miscarriages in the late Rebellion in that Kingdom of Ireland had made themselves unworthy of Our Grace and Protection is notorious to all men and We were so jealous in that particular that shortly after Our return into this Our Kingdom when the Marquess of Antrim came hither to present his duty to Us upon the Information We received from those Persons who then attended Us by a Deputation from Our Kingdom of Ireland or from those who at that time owned our Authority there that the Marquess of Antrim had so misbehaved himself towards Us and Our late Royal Father of blessed memory that he was in no degree worthy of the least Countenance from Us and that they had manifest and unquestionable Evidence of such his guilt Whereupon We refused to admit the said Marquess so much as into Our Presence but on the contrary committed him Prisoner to our Tower of London where after he had continued several Months under a strict restraint upon the continual Information of the said Persons We sent him into Ireland without interposing the least on his behalf but left him to undergo such a Tryal and Punishment as by the Justice of that Our Kingdom should be found due to his Crime expecting still that some heinous Matter would be objected and proved against him to make him uncapable and to deprive him of that Favour and Protection from Us which we knew his former Actions and Services had merited After many months attendance there and We presume after such Examinations as were requisite he was at last dismissed without any Censure and without any transmission of Charge against him to Us and with a License to transport himself into this Kingdom We concluded that it was then time to give him
Inclinations as well as against their Rule And can we imagine that they can have no force at all upon the common people Therefore we cannot in Conscience pronounce these words in the Ears of the people whose Souls are committed to our Charge For we should hereby lay a snare before them and become their Tempters instead of being their Instructers and in very fair and reasonable Construction we shall be understood to sollicite them to Apostacy to leave the Truth of the Gospel for Fables and the mistakes of men a reasonable and decent Worship for Superstition and Idolatry a true Christian Liberty for the most intollerable Bondage both of Soul and Body If any will forsake our Doctrine and Fellowship which yet is not ours but Christs at their own peril be it But as for us We are resolv'd by the Grace of God to lay no stumbling block in their way nor to be accessary to their ruin that we may be able to declare our integrity with S. Paul That we are pure from the blood of all Men. III. In the next place We are to declare in the King's Name That from henceforth the Execution of all and all manner of Penal Laws in matters Ecclesiastical for not coming to Church or not receiving the Sacrament or for any other Nonconformity to the Religion Established or for or by Reason of the Exercise of Religion in any manner whatsoever be immediately Suspended and the farther Execution of the said Penal Laws and every of them is hereby Suspended What! All and all manner of Laws in matters Ecclesiastical VVhat the Laws against Fornication Adultery Incest For these are in Ecclefiastical matters VVhat All Laws against Blasphemy prophaneness open Derision of Christian Religion Yet these crimes are punishable by no other Laws here than such as have been made in favour of the Established Religion How shall the Lord's day be observ'd VVhat shall hinder covetous men to plow and Cart and follow their several Trades upon that day since all the Laws that secure this observance and outward countenance of respect to the Christian Religion are by this general expression laid aside Besides these words for not coming to Church or not receiving the Sacrament or for any other Nonconformity to the Religion Established cannot in Conscience be read by us in our Churches because they may be a Temptation to young unguided people to neglect all manner of Religious Worship and give them occasion of depriving themselves of such opportunities of grace and salvation as these Penal Laws did often oblige them to use For being discharg'd attendance on our Service they are left at Liberty to be of any Religion or none at all Nay Christian Religion is by these general terms left at discretion as well as the Church of England For men may forsake us to become Jews or Mahometans or Pagan Idolaters as well as to be Papists or Dissenters for any care taken in this Declaration to prevent it And even of such as pretend to be Christians there either are or may be such Blasphemous Sects so dishonourable to our Common Lord and Master as are incapable of all publick encouragement and allowance for that would involve the Government in the Imputation of those Blasphemies and the whole Nation in that Curse and Vengeance of God which such provocations may extorts Wherefore it is not out of any unreasonable opinion of our selves nor disaffection to Protestant Dissenters that we refuse to publish this Indulgence but out of a tender care of the Souls committed to us especially those of the weaker sort to whom we dare not propose an Invitation to Popery and much less any thing that may give countenance or encouragement to Irreligion It is said indeed that we are not required to approve but to read it To this Sir you have very well answer'd that Reading was Teaching it or if it be not so absolutely in the nature of the thing yet in common Construction I am afraid it would have been understood But we do not stand in need of this Excuse for if there be any passages in it that are plain temptations to Popery or Licentiousness it cannot consist with our duty either to God or the Church to read them before our people As for the dispensing power and the Oaths and Tests required to qualifie men for Offices Military and Civil I must leave them to the Consideration of those who nearer concern'd and therefore reasonably presum'd to understand them better Nor do I envy his Majesty the use of his Popish Subjects though I do not know what service they may be capable of doing more than other Men. This Nation has for some time made hard shift to subsist without much of their Aid and against the wills of several of them But now they are become the only necessary men and seem to want nothing but Number to fill all places Military and Civil in the Kingdom in the mean time the Odiousness of their persons and the Insolence of their Behaviour with their way of menacing strange things makes some abatement of the merit of their service Lastly The respect which we have for his Majesties Service will not permit us to Read the Appendix to the Declaration Where the flower of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom are something hardly reflected on as persons that will not contribute to the peace and honour of the Nation because they would consent to the taking away the Laws against Papists that they be put into a Condition to give us Laws The persons here reflected on VVe know to be the chief for Ability and Interest and Inclination to serve the King and therefore cannot do his His Majesty that disservice as to be publishers of their disgrace and make our selves the Instruments of alienating from his Majesty the Affections of his best Subjects Nay we find in our selves a strange difficulty to believe that this could come from His Majesty who has experienc'd their faithfulness upon so many and pressing Occasions This could not well proceed from any but a Stranger to those Honourable persons and the Nation and a greater Stranger to shame and good manners and what have we to do to publish the Venome and Vitulency of a Jesuit A Letter from a Gentleman in Ireland to his Friend in London upon occasion of a Pamphlet Entituled A Vindication of the present Government of Ireland under his Excellency Richard Earl of Tyrconnel SIR AS soon as the Letter Entituled A Vindication of the present Government of Ireland c. came to my hands I set upon Answering it with the same expedition and plainness of Style as uses to accompany naked Truth which needs not the cloathing of sophistical Arguments or florid Expressions to recommend it to the unprejudic'd part of Mankind And indeed upon the very first reading of every Paragraph of it the slightness of the Arguing or the notorious Falshood of the Matter of Fact did so evidently appear that a man of
some of the material Doctrines of the Roman Church may notwithstanding the Charity which we retain towards the Bulk of them make us justly apprehensive that one or more of their Leaders are intirely in the Interest of the Church of Rome For as the Popish Emissaries know how to put themselves into all shapes for the increasing and heightning divisions among Protestants and for the exposing as well as supplanting of our Religion so the design promoted in the foresaid Papers of destroying all the Legal Fences against Popery and of letting the Papists into the Legislative and whole Executive Power of the Government gives the World too much ground to suspect out of whose mint and forge writings of this stamp and mettle do proceed Secondly It should not a little contribute to augment our Jealousie that they who without being false to their Religious Tenets cannot joyn to assist Protestants in case the Papists should attempt to cut our Throats or endeavour to impose their Religion upon the Nation by Military force should of all men study to overthrow that Security which we have by the Test Laws whose whole tendency is onely to prevent the Papists from getting into a condition to extirpate our Religion and destroy us Is it not enough that they have rob'd the Kingdom of the Aid of so many as they have leavened with their Doctrine in case the King upon despairing to establish Popery by a Parliament should imploy his Janizaries to compel us to receive it and should set upon the converting Protestants in England in the way that the French Monarch hath converted the Huguenots but that over and above this they should be doing all they can to deprive us of all the Legal Security whereby we may be preserved from the Power of the Papists Surely 'twere not Charity and good Nature but stupidity and folly not to suspect the tendency of such a design when we find it pursued and carried on by a person that stiles himself a Quaker But then when besides this we find that 't is Mr. William Pen who is the Author of those Papers and the great Instrument in advancing this projection we have the more cause to suspect some sinistrous thing at the bottom of it For first he is under those Obligations to His Majesty which as they may put a biass upon his Understanding so they afford ground enough to Protestants to look upon him no otherways than as one Retained against them 'T was through his present Majesties Intercession with the late King that he obtained the Proprietorship of Pensilvania and from his Bounty that he had the Propriety of Three whole Counties bordering upon it superadded thereunto And as this cannot be but a strong Obligation upon so grateful a person as Mr. Pen why he should effectually serve the King and make his Will in a very great degree the measure of his actings so it ought to be an Inducement to others to be the more jealous of all he say's and not to surrender themselves too easily either to his Magisterial Dictates upon the one hand or to his smooth Flatteries upon the other He must have either laid a mighty merit upon the two Royal Brothers of both whose Religion we are at last convinced or he must have come under Obligations of doing them very considerable service in reference to that which they were most fond of compassing otherways we have little cause to think that he would have been singled out from all the rest of the Kingdom to be made the object of so special favour and of so eminent liberality For though there might be a debt owing to his Father Sir William Pen yet they must be extreamly weak who conceive there was no other motive to the forementioned Donation save Honour and Justice in the two Royal Brothers for having it discharged Seeing many of the noblest Families in England who had spent their Blood and wasted their Estates in fighting for the Crown while Sir William Pen was all along ingaged against it were not only left without all kind of Compensation for what they had eminently acted and as eminently suffered in behalf of the Monarchy but could never get to be reimbursed one farthing of the vast Sums which they had lent the late King and his Father upon the security of the Royal Faith Secondly Mr. Pen hath too far detected himself in these very Discourses not to give us ground to suspect what they are calculated for and whereunto they are subservient For besides his justifying the King's turning so many Gentlemen of the Church of England out of all Office and Imploy by saying they are not fit to be trusted who are out of the King's Interest he further tells us that the King being mortal it is not good sense that he should leave the power in those hands that to his face shew their aversion to the Friends of his Communion Letter first For as this implies no less than that they ought to have the whole Legal and Military Power of the three Kingdoms put into their hands that they may be in a condition to preclude the right Heir from Succession to the Crown or prescribe such Laws to her as they please in case they should think fit to admit her so a very small measure of Understanding will serve to instruct us what the Papists esteem to be an aversion to them and in what manner had they the power in their hands they think themselves obliged to treat us upon that account And as we have had occasion to know too much of his Majesties Temper and Design as well as to whose Guidance he hath implicitely resigned himself not to be sensible what he esteems his Interest so we need no other evidence what it amounts unto to be in it than the seeing so many displaced from all share in the administration whose Quality gives them a Right and their Abilities a fitness for the chiefest and most honourable Trusts and whom as the King by reason of their services to himself as well as the Crown cannot lay aside without the highest ingratitude so their known Loyalty to his person and zeal for the grandure of the Monarchy is such that nothing could take them off from concurring in his Councils and promoting his Designs but the conviction they are under of their tendency to the subversion of Religion and the altering of the Legal Government And as we have reason to suspect what the foresaid Papers are intended to promote both upon the account of the Author's being Quaker and because not onely of the many Obligations he is under to His Majesty but his being so intirely in his Interest as appears by his influence into Councils the great stroke he hath in all Affairs and from his being one of the King 's principal Confidents so upon looking into those Discourses we find several things obtruded on us for truth and proposed in order to wheedle and insnare us into an abrogation of the Laws
enacted for our security which to every ones knowledge are so palpably false that we have all the ground that may be both to question and suspect his sincerity and to conclude that his Masters do not purpose to confine themselves within the bounds that he is pleased to chalk out for them and which he undertakes they shall be contented with for their allotment For what can be remoter from Truth than that the Test Laws were designed as a preamble to the Bill of Exclusion as he phrases it Letter first and that they were contrived to exclude the Duke of York from the Crown as he expresseth it p. 15. of his Good Advice c. when it is most certain that as the Test in 73. was made long before there were or could be any thoughts of it and was enacted by a Parliament against whose Loyalty there can be no exception so there was a clause in the last Test Act by which it was provided that he should not be obliged to take it Again what can be more repugnant to experience than that the King onely desires ease for those of his Religion Good Adv. p. 44. and that the Papists desire no more than a Toleration and are willing upon those Terms to make a perpetual peace with the Church of England Good Advice p. 17. For do we not daily see Protestants turned out of all Places of Trust Authority and Command and Papists advanced into all Offices Military and Civil Could the King have been contented with a Non-execution of the Laws against those of his Communion and could they have been satisfied with such an Indulgence and have modestly improved it 'T is not improbable but that such a behaviour would have so far prevailed upon the ingenuity and good nature of the generality of Protestants that without needing to have been importuned they would have repealed all the Penal Laws against Roman Catholicks But the methods which have been pursued by his Majesty and them shews both that they aim at no less than the Domination and that we must be very willing to be deceived if we either credit Mr. Pen or suffer our selves to be influenced by him after his obtruding upon us for truths matters which our very senses inable us to refute It may justly make us question his sincerity and beget a suspition in all thinking people of the sinistrous design these Papers are adapted unto when we find him endeavouring to cajole the Nation to an abrogation of the Laws by which our Religion and Safety are secured by telling us That the King's word is enough for us to rely upon if they were gone Good Advice p. 49. and that he could easily pack a Parliament for Repealing them if he did not seek a more lasting and more agreeable security to his Friends Letter third p. 12. and that if they were abolished 't is below the Glory of our King to use ways so unlike the rest of his open and generous principles as to endeavour to get a Parliament afterwards returned that is not duly chosen Letter second p. 15. and that he is a Prince of that Honour Conscience and generoas nature as not by invading the Rights of the Church of England to become guilty of an injustice and irreligion he hath so often so solemnly and earnestly spoken against Letter second p. 11. He must needs take us to be strangely unacquainted with the whole Tenor of the King's Actings in England as well as in Scotland and Ireland and to be persons of very weak understandings and of an easie belief if he think we are to be imposed upon and decoy'd by such Topicks as these to absolish the Tests or that after what we have seen and felt contradictory to those Panegyricks and inconsistent with those beautiful and lofty Characters fastned upon his Majesty we should believe Mr. Pen to mean nothing but well and honestly towards the Protestant Interest in what he so earnestly solliciteth the Church of England and the Dissenters in the forementioned Papers to concurr and consent unto I do acknowledge that what he hath said about Liberty due to men in matters of meer Religion and by way of rebuke unto and reflection upon the Wisdom and Justice of those that either are or have been for persecution is very strong and convincing but I must withall add that it is all at this time very needless and impertinent For the Church of England is so sensible of the Iniquity as well as folly of that Method that there is no ground to suspect She will ever be guilty of it for the future They whom no Arguments could heretofore convert the Court whose Tools they were in that mischievous and Unchristian work and by whom they were instigated to all the severities which they are now blamed for by objecting it to them as their Reproach and Disgrace and by seeking to improve the resentments of those who had suffered by Penal Laws to become an united party with the Papists for their subversion hath brought them at once to be asham'd of what they did and to Resolutions of promoting all Christian Liberty for the time to come And should there be any peevish and ill-natur'd Ecclesiasticks who upon a turn of Affairs would be ready to reassume their former principles and pursue their wonted course we may be secure against all fear of their being successful in it not only by finding the Majority as well as the more learned both of the dignified and inferior Clergy unchangeably fixed and determined against it but by having the whole Nobility and Gentry and those Noble Princes whose right it will be next to ascend the Throne fully possessed with all the generous and Christian purposes we can desire of making provision for Liberty of Conscience by a Law Nor can I forbear to subjoyn how surprizing it ought to be to all Protestants that while Mr. Pen expresseth so much charity for the Papists he entertaineth so little for the Church of England He would perswade us that if the Penal and Test Laws were abrogated the Papists would be so far afterward from seeking to shake the Constitution of the Church of England or from breaking in upon the Liberty that is now vouchsafed unto Dissenters or from endeavouring to make their Religion National that they would not onely be contented with a bare Toleration but that upon their enjoyment of ease by Law they would turn good Countrymen and come in to the Interest of the Kingdom Letter first Whereas at the same time he would have us believe that all the Protestations of those in the Communion of the Church of England for exercising Moderation in time to come are but the Language of their fear that their promises are not to be trusted Good Advice p. 54. and that the Dissenters deserve to be begged for Fools should they be satisfied with any less assurance than the abolition of the Penal and Test Laws ibid. p. 55. 'T is enough not onely to excite
and of which you have seen so fresh an instance that we need not put you in mind of it You know how many of your Fellow-Officers have been used for their standing firm to the Protestant Religion and to the Laws of England and you cannot flatter your selves so far as to expect to be better used if those who have broke their word so often should by your means be brought out of those Straits to which they are reduced at present We hope likewise that you will not suffer your selves to be abused by a false Notion of Honour but that you will in the first place consider what you owe to Almighty God and your Religion to your Country to your Selves and to your Posterity which you as Men of Honour ought to prefer to all private Considerations and Engagements whatsoever We do therefore expect that you will consider the Honour that is now set before you of being the Instruments of serving your Country and securing your Religion and We will ever remember the Service you shall do Us upon this Occasion and will promise unto you that We shall place such particular Marks of our Favour on every one of you as your Behaviour at this time shall deserve of Us and the Nation in which we will make a great Distinction of those that shall come seasonably to join their Arms with ours and you shall find us to be Your Well-wishing and Assured Friend W. H. P. O. Prince George 's Letter to the King SIR WITH a Heart full of Grief am I forced to Write what Prudence will not permit me to say to your Face And may I e'er find Credit with your Majesty and protection from Heaven as what I now do is free from Passion Vanity or Design with which Actions of this Nature are too often accompanied I am not ignorant of the frequent Mischiefs wrought in the World by factious pretences of Religion but were not Religion the most justifiable Cause it would not be made the most specious pretence And your Majesty has always shewn too uninterested a Sense of Religion to doubt the just Effects of it in one whose Practices have I hope never given the World cause to censure his real conviction of it or his backwardness to perform what his Honour and Conscience prompt him to How then can I longer disguise my just Concern for that Religion in which I have been so happily Educated which my Judgment throughly convinces me to be best and for the Support of which I am so highly interested in my Native Country And is not England now by the most endearing Tie become so Whilst the restless Spirits of the Enemies of the REFORMED RELIGION back'd by the cruel Zeal and prevailing Power of France justly alarm and unite all the Protestant Princes of Christendom and engage them in so vast an Expence for the support of it can I act so degenerous and mean a part as to deny my Concurrence to such worthy Endeavours for disabusing of your Majesty by the Reinforcement of those Laws and Establishment of that Government on which alone depends the well-being of your Majesty and of the PROTESTANT RELIGION in Europe This Sir is that irresistible and only Cause that cou'd come in Competition with my Duty and Obligations to your Majesty and be able to tear me from You whilst the same Affectionate Desire of serving You continues in me Could I secure your Person by the Hazard of my Life I should think it could not be better Employed And wou'd to God these Your distracted Kingdoms might yet receive that satisfactory Compliance from your Majesty in all their justifiable pretensions as might upon the only sure Foundation that of the Love and Interest of your Subjects establish your Government and as strongly Unite the Hearts of all your Subjects to You as is that of SIR Your Majesty's most Humble and most Obedient Son and Servant The Lord Churchill 's Letter to the King SIR SInce Men are seldom suspected of Sincerity when they act contrary to their Interests and though my dutiful Behaviour to your Majesty in the worst of Times for which I acknowledge my poor Services much over paid may not be sufficient to incline You to a charitable Interpretation of my Actions yet I hope the great Advantage I enjoy under Your Majesty which I can never expect in any other change of Government may reasonably convince Your Majesty and the World that I am acted by a higher Principle when I offer that violence to my inclination and interest as to desert Your Majesty at a time when your Affairs seem to challenge the strictest Obedience from all your Subjects much more from one who lies under the greatest personal Obligations imaginable to Your Majesty This Sir could proceed from nothing but the inviolable Dictates of my CONSCIENCE and a necessary concern for my RELIGION which no good man can oppose and with which I am instructed nothing ought to come in Competition Heaven knows with what partiality my dutiful Opinion of Your Majesty hath hitherto represented those unhappy Designs which inconsiderate and self-interested men have framed against Your Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion But as I can no longer joyn with such to give a pretence by Conquest to bring them to effect so will I always with the hazard of my Life and Fortune so much your Majesty's due endeavour to preserve Your Royal Person and Lawful Rights with all the tender Concern and dutiful Respect that becomes SIR Your Majesty's most Dutiful and most Obliged Subject and Servant The Princess Ann of Denmark 's Letter to the Queen Madam I Beg your pardon if I am so deeply affected with the surprising News of the Princes being gon as not to be able to see You but to leave this Paper to Express my humble Duty to the King and your Self and to let You know that I am 〈◊〉 to absent my self to avoid the King's Displeasure which I am not able to bear â—ur ther against the Prince or my Self And I shall stay at so great a distance as not to return before I hear the happy News of a Reconcilement And as I am confident the Prince did not leave the King with any other design than to use all possible means for His Preservation so I hope You will do me the Justice to believe that I am uncapable of following Him for any other End Never was any one in such an unhappy Condition so divided between Duty and Affection to a Father and a Husband and therefore I know not what to do but to follow one to preserve the other I see the general falling off of the Nobility and Gentry who avow to have no other end than to prevail with the King to secure their Religion which they saw so much in danger by the Violent Counsels of the Priests who to promote their own Religion did not care to what dangers they exposed the King I am fully perswaded that the Prince of