provided against those extream Grievances which they lay under it was easie for them to find at hand the Name and Person of the Prince of Orange to whose Family upon former considerations they had the greatest Obligations and therefore their Acclamations for the Elevation of the Prince were mixed with Exclamations of Fury and Rage against the De Wits It is the greatest injustice to charge this as a Crime upon a Young Prince who then being but a Youth had given proofs of his Wisdom and of a consummated Moderation Neither have I heard that in Holland any of those who were the greatest Loosers by the Death of the De Wits and the Change of Government did entertain the least suspition thereof The Battle of St. Denis is also objected which his present Majesty gave at the very time when the Treaty of Peace at Nimeghen was a concluding in which seven or eight thousand Men were killed on one side and other His Majesty was not at all obliged to know that the Peace was concluded and it is well known that he was extreamly condescending to make the best Conditions he could If the advantage had been more compleat and the French Army had been entirely defeated it had very well appeared that the Action had not been so ill construed The Peace was signed at Nimeghen but it was not ratified and until the Ratification of a Treaty there is always time allowed to the Parties to change their Councils either for the Confirmation or relaxation thereof From the same Source does proceed another Charge against his Majesty in favour of a little Gentleman called the Prince of Wales as if he had been look'd upon to block up his Majestie 's way to the Crown but the true Heirs of the Crown had no ground to believe that the pretended Prince of Wales did block up their way to the Crown He was very far off he was born a Papist he had the Pope for his Godfather he was naturally excluded from the Crown of England upon that score and the Party which had set James II. on the Throne tho' a declared Papist could not maintain their pretensions for any long time James II. had supported him by his forwardness by his Intrigues and by his Army On his Death or oververthrow by some blow the Stripling 's Aspect would have been soon changed with his Fortune This young Popish Prince surviving either a Minor or destitute of Strength and Wisdom for supporting himself could not maintain his Point for any long time against the known Laws of the Country against the People and against the Religion of the Land and the lawful Rights of the Princess besides a Birth so obscure and so destitute of good proof could not be maintained against the manifest and professed Birth of the two Princesses who were lawful Heirs This Prince of Wales would have been obliged one day to prove his Birth against the two Princesses who would dispute it and it is very probable that he would have come but ill off I do not at all doubt but that his Birth whether true or suppos'd oblig'd the Nation to be more Urgent in calling for his present Majestie 's Assistance So long as they saw none else seated upon the Throne a Popish King on whom Old Age and consequently Death was making it's near approaches they might have Patience in hopes of seeing within a little time Protestant Successors in the Possession of the Crown But when they perceived that a New Prince was trump'd up who in all probability was nothing else but a Chimera to perpetuate the Popish Religion on the Throne from Generation to Generation they were awakened they thought of their own safety they implored help from their deliverer they had reason to crave it and his present Majesty had reason to grant it for it was a perillous and pressing Juncture and it was not to be expected that the People who accustomed themselves to every thing with time would inure themselves to bear with a presumptive Heir of the Crown set up in favour of a Religion that is a mortal Enemy both to the Peace and Religion of the Realm I intend not here to set down the process of the supposititious Birth of the Prince of Wales nor do I think it necessary I shall only make some reflections on it all Europe knows or ought to know that King William and Queen Mary were the last who entertained this supposition It is manifestly known to the World that the report was Universally spread throughout England and all Europe from the time that there was any talk of the Queen's being with Child of her Vow to our Lady of Loretto of the rich Presents that she sent thither of the Bath whither she went to prepare her self for pregnancy of the King's journey to the Bath to visit the Queen of the rumour that was spread abroad immediately after that of the Queen's being with Child Not only all the Protestants but all the Catholics of good sence who gave no great credit to the Miracles of our Lady look'd upon all as a prelude to the Comedy that was to be Acted All England is witness that during all the time that the Queen was with Child the City of London and Whitehall were full of Satyrs and Lampoons in Verse and in Prose like rude Serpents they flew about not sparing the Queen's Petticoats her pregnancy was ridiculed And it is also known that not only the Mobile but all Persons of the greatest Note in the Kingdom had the same suspition My second Reflection is that the Prince had all reason imaginable to conceive a suspition of this Birth in consideration of the quality of the witnesses who were summoned to attest it It is very well known that neither Princess Ann of Denmark nor any of the Friends of the Present King and Queen nor King Jame's Enemies were called to be by and it is as well known that the Bishops were put in the Tower some days after It is known that the Queen was brought to Bed when she thought fit and that she went for that end to St. James's House it is known that she made two reckonings within the compass of a Month and there was good reason to suspect that she took an advantage from it to take the most agreeable Measures for the management of the intrigue When there is but one reckoning all things requisite are not always in readiness against the named time for an Action of that nature It is Universally known that King James and his Queen were informed of all the reports that were spread abroad that the Queen's being with Child was a sham and consequently they were obliged to use all imaginable precaution to Work an assurance in Peoples minds that it was genuin they would not do it by any means they encreased the suspition by this neglect Seeing there are so great reasons to call it into question could his Present Majesty be blamed for endeavouring to be
ANGLIAE Decus Tutamen OR THE GLORY and SAFETY OF THIS NATION Under our Present King and Queen PLAINLY DEMONSTRATING That it is not only the DUTY but the INTEREST of all JACOBITES and DISAFFECTED PERSONS to act for and submit to this GOVERNMENT LONDON Printed and Sold by Richard Baldwin at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1691. ANGLIAE Decus Tutamen OR THE GLORY and SAFETY OF THIS NATION Under our Present King Queen c. THE Physicians have a very bad Opinion of that Disease that begins with most violent Agitations with Tremblings that shake the very Bones out of Joynt and extreamly debilitate the Nerves with dreadful Convulsions with frantic and extatical Indispositions of the Brain that over-run the whole Oeconomy They are never deceived in their Judgment when they pronounce such Distempers mortal It is the same thing in States their Diseases which begin with violent internal Agitations are commonly Presages of great Revolutions France is in this Condition the Preparations that are made against her by all Europe in a joynt Conspiracy threaten her with great Mischiefs and there is nothing more effectual for fortifying the Hopes of the Confederate Princes and States than the convulsive Motions that are observed not only in her Bowels but in all her Actions if we consider her Arms nothing ever appeared so strange France although it be as yet entire and has not incurr'd the loss of either Men or Provinces is subject to all those Agitations to which she can be exposed which would be infallibly improved into the last and fatal Paroxism if there were an Enemy in the midst of the Kingdom She obliges all her Inhabitants to take Arms she exhausts her Treasures to the bottom Ruin and Desolation are the Blessings she leaves in those Places which she cannot keep she is notoriously guilty of the most inhuman Excesses for all the Palatinate and almost all the Countries upon the Rhine with their Towns and Castles that are levelled with the Ground burnt and reduced to Ashes are in such a Motion as cannot be imputed to any thing else but a Fit of a violent Phrensie that is so prodigious that we cannot but see therein the Characters of an internal Agitation that is attended with the most dreadful Violence of all has been as yet observed Every Knight of the Post brings us an Account of Symptoms of this cruel Disease which does expose her to such fearful Agitations and threatens her with the most violent Death and there is something that is singular in the Violence of these Motions and it is this that the Revolution that has lately happened in England by the wise Conduct of William III. King of England does irritate them to so great an Elevation of Fury If his present Majesty had poured his Forces into France and obliged that King to leave his Throne the Rage would have been raised to such a pitch as to admit of no Accession The Piety Clemency and Justice of King William who now strikes Lewis with so great a Terror is the August Subject of this Discourse These glorious Qualities made manifest in his said Majesty's late Expedition into England in Opposition to the French Designs there are the Subject matter of this small Treatise Neither the late King James nor the Irish and English Papists his Friends were so hot in their Resentments as the French There is something extraordinary in it and this boundless Wrath of the French King against William King of England was possibly not so much kindled by the consideration of what he has done as by the fearful prospect of what he can do Yet the most powerful measures they can take for the overthrow of their own Interest is to provoke an Enemy who is so potent at this day It is possible that he is not altogether irreconcileable they ought to be more careful to observe those just and decent Methods by which he is to be treated The Designs of France afforded a necessary occasion for an Expedition the whole Course of which runs parallel with the Rules of Piety which inspire King William's Royal Breast Since the King was of the Years of Knowledge there never passed one year wherein he did not publicly receive the Sacrament several times there passed not one Sunday on which he was not present at the public Service and Devotions he never heard a Sermon which touched him which he obliged not himself to recollect and upon which he made not pious Reflections he never heard a Sermon but with such Attention and Devotion that made Private Persons ashamed He never went out in the Morning without secret Prayer and devout Reading And they who enter'd into his Closet observed his Table to be adorned with Books of Devotion that were fit to nourish Souls His generous way of interessing himself in all the Miseries that those suffered who were Persecuted for the sake of their Religion was a visible Testimony to all the World of the Sentiments of his Heart concerning them We may say that the Qualities of a Hero and of a great Man are chiefly due to himself and to his Blood And God who took care for his Welfare and of his Soul besides other means of Princely Education provided him an Excellent Master in the things of Religion And therefore from his Infancy he received the Seeds of Piety which have sprung up to so great Maturity as we see at this day He affords Matter of Edification to all Protestants who know him He foresaw very well all that the Rage of the contrary Party could say against his Enterprise which obliged him to deliberate on it for a considerable time for he not only loved Vertue it self but cherished the outward appearances of it He had never overcome the scruples that presented themselves if the Security of Religion and of the State had not determined Him As for the Queen it is generally agreed that there was never one more Devout nor more exact in the Practice of her Duties towards God Her Piety is not accompanied with the vain shew of Hypocrisy She is great without being Proud She has a Natural Air she appears in all her Actions without Affectation She is tender and full of Compassion and incapable of forgetting the Obligations of Nature As for his Majesties Expedition into England First It is requisite that we shew that the Possessions and Affairs belonging to the Public are not governed as the Possessions of Private Persons and that we are not to judge of them by the same Rules Princes Kings and in general Sovereigns have Men and reasonable Souls for their Possessions and Private Men for their Possessions have only Houses Lands Oxen Sheep and Horses c. That if a Private Person is of a bad Conduct and does mismanage those Possessions which Providence has put into his hands there will no other inconvenience ensue thereupon but only the disposition of some Lands or Moveables which in respect of the Public will be
at least the Kingdom will be left to him distracted and divided into a thousand Fractions one Party favouring the Stranger and another taking the part of the lawful Heir just as it happened under Charles VI. and Charles VII the English Possessed themselves of the Kingdom some took his part and others were against him and the Kingdom began to sink under the weight of that dreadful War It is then clear that in such a Case a Son after having made respectful Remonstrances to his Father and having made him sensible of the formidable disorders occasion'd by his ill Conduct may with a good conscience make use of force to deliever the Kingdom out of the hands of one who Devotes it to ruin who lays it desolate and does Transubstantiate it into a desart and who by the ill Measures he takes does evidently expose it to a Foreign Invasion Now it is certain that King James was destroying the Kingdoms Bodies Politic and Natural by his Mismanagement of the Government his violation of the Laws and making himself the Arbitrary Judge of their Sanction and Observation dispensing with them at Pleasure by depriving them of their Authority by putting honest Men out of their employs and bestowing those Offices on Men who were by Law incapable of exercising the same by taking off innocent Persons This directly tended first to the ruin of the Religion that was by Law established for he deprived Protestants of their Offices on purpose to bestow them on Roman Catholics who were Enemies to the Protestants and their Religion he violated all manner of Laws as he pleased he filled the Kingdom with Priests and Monks he made the Exercise of the Popish Religion public in all Cities and Counties he gave to the Jesuits the Colleges that were of Antient Foundation and allowed them to found new He ordered Churches to be Built for them The Jesuits open'd Schools in London A Jesuite sat in Council and was the first Minister of State The King sent Ambassadors to Rome and had Ambassadors sent to him from thence and all this against the express Laws of the Kingdom and that he might do all these things securely he maintained a powerful Army in time of Peace which is also contrary to the Priviledge of the English People This Conduct tended to the overthrow of the Monarchy as well as of the Church A Civil War was unavoidable in a little time England's patience was come to an end The Kingdom was fallen into the same condition it was in in the time of King Charles I. It is possible that King James II. would have incurred the same fate with his Father and without doubt the Fanatics would have made themselves Masters of the Government to the Exclusion of the lawful Heir Thus His present Majesty for the preservation of his Religion and the Crown to which he had a good Title and which ought in that juncture to be reduced into possession was obliged to put a stop to the current of those Mischiefs in the Fountain he endeavoured to do this by moderate means He Passed into England to curb the immoderate Power of his Father-in-Law This Father-in-Law could not endure to receive Law from any one He fled he Abdicated the Throne The Nation filled it with him who was come to deliver them His Majesty King William Accepted the Crown it had been a cruel piece of Piety to behold the Bowels of the State torn the Religion of the Kingdom perishing the spilling of so much Blood the oppression of so many innocent Persons so many Families reduced to Beggary and the right of the lawful Heir exposed to evident ruin for I know not what respect to Relation and Kindred Brutus and Manlius were praised for not having spared their own Blood and for having punished by death the Rebellion and Disobedience of their Children God is our first Father our Country is our principal Mother there are no Relations or Alliances which ought not to be Sacrificed to these great Names Besides these general Considerations there are also particular ones which are no less proper for the justification of their Majesties of Great Britain and Ireland The first is that King James II. was not lawful King although he was acknowledged by the Three Kingdoms he had drawn the Subjects of those three Kingdoms thereto by surprise being a Papist he could not be the King of England the People and Kings annex to the Succession of the Crown what Conditions they think fit Since Henry VIII all the Kings and Queens of England Mary excepted were Protestants that is to say Enemies to the Papal Tyranny this was a Quality annexed to the Crown of England All the Laws forbid the acknowledgment of the Pope for Head of the Church and Vicar of Jesus Christ They make the King of England Head of the English Church and it's High-Treason to say otherwise It is true that James the II. made a shift to thrust himself into the Throne in spite of all these Obstacles for the removing of which all imaginable diligence was used false Promises and false Oaths were not wanting It is known what were the Sentiments and the Interests of those who were Assisting in such a Violation of the Laws It is not necessary to make mention of them in this place although the Violation was nothing else but a suspension for the Laws were not Abrogated and tho' they had been so the English would always have had a Right to retrieve and re-establish them which were made for the security of Religion They Enacted Recognised and Declared that to be King of England and a Papist are Qualities that are absolutely incompatible and they were no ways to be blamed for the thing is plain and his present Majesty had reason not to Abandon to another the Succession that belonged to himself and his Royal Consort who have the same Qualities and are of the same Religion as is required by the Law and who moreover are the lawful and next Heirs It is not the first time that the Children have taken the room of the Father whom the Laws and his own personal Qualities excluded from the Enjoyment of the Rights and Possessions which his Birth had allowed him After all we must know that the English Government is not in the hands of one Person There is one King the King is Sovereign but he is not in the Possession of all the Sovereign Power He who cannot make Laws nor break them is not in the Possession of Arbitrary Power The Parliament partakes of the Legislative Authority with the King The People have their Priviledges which the King and Parliament cannot take from them If for Example a Parliament should meet with the King for making an absolute change of the Form of Government for abolishing the use of Parliaments and for depriving the People of all their Priviledges Charters and Immunities the People might justly provide against these Violations James II. endeavoured to Cancel all the Priviledges of the
Nation but durst not disanul Parliaments but he dissolved them and caused them to be dissolved by his Brother as soon as ever the Parliaments did any thing that displeased him He deprived the Corporations of their Charters and Priviledges He obstructed free Elections he took upon him a Power of dispensing with the Laws and of acting in a direct opposition to what was thereby ordained He was not legally impowred to proceed so far and therefore he transgressed the due Bounds and thereby put the Nation in a rightful Capacity no longer to acknowledge him for it is certain that in all Relations of Father and Son of Wife and Husband of Master and Servant of Subject and King where there is an express Contract and certain Conditions laid down when one of the Parties happens to violate the Contract and to be wanting in the performance of the Conditions that the other Party is no longer obliged The Lawyers Maxim Princeps Legibus solutus est has no place here By the Prince is understood one that is Sovereign and a Magistrate that is absolute without limitation Unhappy are the People who have got such Masters who have suffered their Priviledges to be disanulled but the People and the Nations which are so happy as to preserve the Bulwarks which in the Establishment of their Monarchy have been raised against the Ambition of their Princes are very Wise in maintaining them The King of England does not boast that he is above the Laws for he is obliged to Reign according to the Laws If there be any Sovereign in England who is above the Laws it is the Parliament and the King together This Sovereign makes Laws and repeals them and so is not bound thereby but the Parliament alone can neither make nor repeal Laws neither can the King alone do it So that these Words of Cambden concerning the Authority of the Kings of England does not take away the Rights of Parliaments and the Priviledges of the People that are publicly known Seeing the Kings of England are bound to Reign according to the Laws there lyes no obligation upon the People any longer to acknowledge them when they raise themselves above the Laws and have no regard thereunto Indeed a modern Writer has said that Protestants may be trusted because they swear Allegiance to the Prince without reservation But we swear Allegiance without reservation only where the Law does not annext it and where the Princes have their bounds limited by the Laws our Religion does not at all oblige us to make Oath of Fidelity without reservation and without condition since the Kings of England themselves in Conjunction with their Parliaments have annexed certain reservations to the Oaths of Allegiance which they require from their Subjects We do no ways believe that the English violate their Oaths of Allegiance when they think that they are free so to do by the Invasion that their Kings make upon the Fundamental Laws of the Realm From all this it follows that the English Nation did justly look upon King James II. as incapable of the Crown because of his Religion and as fallen from his Rights by his violation of all the Fundamental Laws and consequently William III. his Son-in-Law and Mary his Daughter now King and Queen of England possess the Crown most lawfully which returns to them by Right of Succession and which was confirmed to them by the unanimous Consent of the three Estates of the Kingdom They did not trample upon the respect which they owed to him who was their Father or held the place of a Father for nothing is owing to a Father in prejudice of the Rights that are due to God and our Country They committed no Violence as a means of coming by the Crown for they first received it from a free Convention they did nothing against the Commands of St. Peter and St. Paul of being Subject to the Powers for neither St. Peter nor St. Paul had any design of Establishing the Arbitrary Power of Kings whose Authority is limited by the Laws nor of favouring Tyrants Now as there have not been Men wanting to misconstrue His Majesties late Expedition so there have been some of his Majesties Enemies mentioned at the beginning who charged the Misfortunes of the Two De Wits Anno. 1672. on the then P. of Orange But it is known to all the World how the Matter went it happened by a popular Commotion which was like Gun-powder kindled and spread in a moment It is true that the two De Wits were accounted Enemies to the Prince It is true that there were two Parties formed in the State one against the Prince and the other for him but if things had gone well and the order which the De Wits had given for the preservation of the Country had succeeded no Person had ever muttered against them but Unhappily the State was without any Defence without Arms without Forts without Forces without Alliances which afforded the French an Opportunity of Marching into the very Heart of the Country leaving nothing but Desolation behind them Those who were at the Helm were narrowly look'd to whether they were to blame or no. The People thereupon were enraged against those who had the management of Affairs They made a general insurrection in the Town against the Magistrates It was much less for the Prince's Interest then for their own that there was such an uproar amongst the People The Mobile had been little enough concerned who governed provided the Government had been in safety Hitherto the Government of the De Wits as it had been happy so it had been attended with Tranquillity But in the Year 1672. the Government of those Gentlemen was extreamly Unfortunate the People who peremptorily reckoned the Unhappy Success of the measures they took to be an Effect of their Mismanagement of Affairs fell upon them and spent all the Magazine of their Rage against them And it was the King of France to whom the De Wits were indebted for that Tragical Execution it is he who by his unjust Enterprifes and his happy Success did provoke the People's Patience to the last extremity and obliged them to avenge themselves by force on those who had so very ill provided for the safety of the State The Prince was no ways concerned therein but accidentally if he had had the Administration of Affairs for some Years before that if he had been mistaken in his Measures as they had been if the King of France had met with the same Success after the Administration of the Prince of Orange that he had after that of the De Wits it is certain that the Prince of Orange had been in danger of having been the object of the People's Fury as those Gentlemen were but it is well known that this is the usual manner of popular Commotious that when they make an insurrection against one they make a Bulwark of another Expressing their Fury because the Government being altogether a Republic had not
well informed of the Affair for requiring that the business should be examined in Parliament He does not at all affirm that the Prince of Wales was supposititious he only demands an assurance of his Birth There is nothing more just and natural At that time his Majesty had not as yet seen the depositions which James II. caused to be taken thereupon but if he had seen them they were not capable of affording him any assurance for first there were none almost found amongst the Witnesses but such as were suspected Persons Officers Pensioners and the Kings Domestic Servants Secondly all that the Queen Dowager the most part of the Lords and Ladies said may be true and yet the Child that was Born not be Born of the Queen for the Assistants who are at the Beds Feet and in a Corner of the Chamber know not what is laid in the Bed nor whence it came which is taken out of it In the last place the depositions that were taken in the Kings presence are for that very reason altogether invalid and insufficient This is a ground good enough for what the Prince says in his Declaration which is the most plain and the most modest imaginable That there are great Presumptions that oblige us to believe that these Evil Counsellors for promoting their own pernicious designs and for gaining of time to execute them spread a report that the Queen was delivered of a Son that during this pretended bigness of the Queen as well as in the circumstance of the Birth and the methods that were used for the management of it there appeared so many just and visible suspitions that the pretended Prince of Wales was not brought into the World by the Queen There could no less be said upon so important a subject King James ought to justify himself from this in the face of the World are not Princes to take care of their Reputation Is it not this that secures them How could King James think to be free from being insulted over by a Nation which looked upon him as a Master of Intrigue and Audacity and as an unnatural Father and Prince And there is no Prince in the World against whom we can more reasonably conceive this suspition he who runs a risque of losing three Crowns and at last did really lose them for his Religion does in effect shew that he had it and that he was not like his Predecessor who had none but likewise the same thing gives us to understand that he could venture all other things for the sake of his Religion for Men of the World who dare run a risque of losing their Crowns to compass their ends may very well venture their Reputation the Blood of their Subjects and all things else to satisfy their own humour Indeed the rest of his Conduct made it appear that he was capable of sacrificing all even to his conscience for the sake of his Religion His Majesties moderation having sufficiently appeared in his Conduct in the forementioned Passages there follows some instances of His Majesties Justice in his late expedition who as has been said Acted first as the Presumptive Heir of the Crown at least under the Title of his Royal Consort and that in this quality he justly proviâ—ed for the security of the Kingdom which was to descend to him one day He hindered the subversion of the Laws and Religion and justly though it had been in opposition to his own Father if James II. had been such I have proved that a Son and Heir of a Kingdom is obliged by his own interest by that of the People and by what he owes to God to oppose a Father who brings the Realm to imminent ruin and reduces the Religion to a State of Desolation Secondly his present Majesty did bear the Character of an Enemy not to King James not to the Nation but to the Tools his Father-in-Law made use of for the overthrow of Religion and the Laws He passed not into the Kingdom forcibly as the General of the Dutch Army He entered in his own Name to Declare War against the Enemies of the Kingdom and of the Protestant Religion who had raised an Army for the subversion of the Laws and of the Church Thus by the Laws of a just War if ever there was one such he could summon his Enemies to lay down their Arms to yield themselves for avoiding the Effusion of Blood he could demand assistance and Military Aid from all those who loved their Liberty and Religion When a King is become the Enemy of the State of the Laws and of God there is nothing then owing to him and James II. was such a one We come to another thing viz. That which King William III. did at his first Arrival in England His design being lawful and just viz. for setting up a Standard for Liberty and Declaring War against the Enemies of Religion and of the Laws he was obliged to do whatever tended to that end It was no Usurpation of the Royal Authority It is a circumstance the nature of which does depend on the ground on which the Expedition was founded and therefore upon the plainest reason we may see who is in the right and who is in the wrong in this matter As to the Refusal of the Mayor and the Clergy of Exeter to execute the Prince's Orders for acknowledging him and opening their Churches this is of no advantage to the contrary Party nor does contribute any wise either to the Honour or Disgrace of the Magistrates and Clergy of that City but this reflects on James II. for that Reservedness was an effect of the dreadful consternation that they were in and which was occasioned by the Calamities that King James had brought upon that and other Countries in the West after the Duke of Monmouth's defeat The Trees and the Ways were as yet generally covered with the dead Bodies of those poor Creatures who were made Sacrifices to the most cruel Rage that ever was exercised It was judged sufficient that the Magistrates and the Canons of Exeter were held under that Fear for so soon as they saw themselves secure by the Arrival of the Princes Forces they expressed their joy by such transcendent marks that evidenced the transport they were in yet they did not cease too pray to God for King James till the Convention gave order concerning it The Prince of Orange did not Act as a King at his first Arrival We have not heard that he seized any part of the Royal Revenue and it is not but that he had just cause enough so to do For those who managed the King and tyranized over the Kingdom did convert the same to pernicious Uses for the oppression of Liberty and Religion he might very well without Injustice take it out of their hands There follows now a Narrative of what the Lords Hallifax Nottingham and Godolphin said to the Prince in Pursuance of the Commission that they had from James II. and of the
design of Establishing his own Religion He had therefore a design to destroy all others and consequently to ruin the English Church the Presbyterians and the Independants for it is known by the whole World that the Popish Religion never looks upon her self to be Established till once she has made her Way through the Ruins of all other Religions Secondly This Author endeavours to prove that the Prince only fought a pretence against his Father-in-Law Because saith he he reproaches him for having suspended then Penal Laws in Favour of the Roman Catholics and has not considered him as having also suspended them in behalf of the Presbyterians and other Sectaries as if it were possible for him to have transgressed the Limits of his Power with respect to the one and not to the other He calls this an unreasonable distinction c. All this is nothing else but a piece of affected malice and ignorance This mighty Lawyer ought to know that the Penal Laws were only enacted against the Papists The Oaths if there were nothing else do sufficiently attest this They were made against those who believe the Pope to be the Head of the Church that there is another Jurisdiction within the Realm then that of the King that there is such a thing as Transubstantiation and that the Invocation of Saints is no Idolatry There are no Protestants who believe there things It is not against them that the Penal Laws and the Oaths were made but if the Penal Laws some few Years ago were extended to the Presbyterians that was done by evil designs of James Duke of York who did sow Divisions betwixt the two Parties and therefore the Prince ought to have taken it in good part that he did relax then as to the Presbyterians because that is consonant to the purport and true meaning of the Penal Laws and he ought to have taken it in ill part that the same Favour was allowed to the Roman Catholics because that is contrary to the express Decisions of the Law All the Penal Laws were made to serve as a Bulwark not only for the English Church but for all Protestants in general and therefore all Protestants of all sides set themselves against the Declaration of Liberty of Conscience in general because they saw very well whither that did tend Besides the Addresses by which this Author would prove that the Presbyterians â—â—ok'd upon the suspension of the Penal Laws as an obligation that they owed to the King were nothing else but cunning Artifices and Suppositions for the most part or made by three or four Quakers Independants or Papists who presented those Addresses without the consent of their Respective Bodies in whose name they yet pretended to speak This we know by good hands and we have derived the Account we have had hereof from the very Fountain and it appeared sufficiently by the Unanimous concurrence of those Communities on whom the said Addresses were Fathered with the Prince of Orange The Author concludes this Reflection with two confiderations The first is a mighty Elogy on the Roman Religion which he commends by reason of its Antiquity and Extent by it's Sanctity and the Saints it has given to England The other consideration is of the Power that the Church of England allows the King in Spiritual Causes whence he concludes that the Church of England would be very unreasonable if it were of the Opinion that that Power could be restrained without Cause in respect of that which is of all things most grateful to the World which is to Allow the Free Exercise of their Religion to those of his Subjects who with himself are of the most Antient Religion of all that maintain the Adoration of Jesus Christ. That is to say in a Word that if the King has Power to dispense with the Penal Laws with respect to New Sects he ought in all reason to have the same Power with respect to the Antient Religion that is professed by himself This Consequence is denied If the King of England has Power in Spiritual Causes it iâ— not an Arbitrary Power is bounded by the Laws but the Laws do not forbid a Toleration of the Presbyterians but they forbid a Toleration of the Popish Religion because that so Antient a Religion and which is so far spread through the World and is so holy is a common Enemy of all other Religions whether true or false Those other Religions which give may also receive Toleration but who is obliged to grant a Toleration to the Popish Religion which Tolerates none which destines all those to the Fire and Sword who do not submit themselves to it The Author puts an end to this part of his Defence of King James touching his Religion by taking a review of the Church of England he turns it on every side and finds it safe and sound without so much as Spot or Wrinkle She was the same under the Catholick King that she was under the Protestant Kings She had her Bishops her Cathedral Churches her Parochial Churches her Ecclesiastical Revenues The King built very near twenty Chappels at his own Charge And this is that for which he makes all this Cry Thus our Gentleman concludes that it is an imposition upon the World and a manifest token of want of sense to call that a Subversion of the Religion that was established by Law Certainly the People of England were very far in the wrong that they had not patience till King James brought their Religion to the same Issue as Lewis did the reformed in France It is true that King James established the Popish Service in all the Cities and Burroughs within the Realm where there were Papists It is true that the Jesuits were so bold as to open Schools up and down It is true that by this time London was provided with Monks of all Orders It is true that the Jesuits remained in the Court and that Father Peters was the Head of the English Church by vertue of the entire Influence that he had on the King and the precedency that he had at the Council Board It is true that the principal Offices of State were taken out of the Hands of Protestants and given either to Papists or to those who had no Religion at all It is true that the Earls of Clarenden and Rochester the King's Brothers-in-Law lost their Places of Trust for refusing to change their Religion It is true that the most part of the Judges of the King's Bench were Papists It is true that the Justices of the Peace in the Country were not a few of them Roman Catholicks It is true that the Papists were possessed of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford It is true that the Archbishoprick of York being vacant was designed for a Jesuit or some Priest It is true that the Offices in the Militia the Government of Counties and the Lieutenant ship of Ireland the Town and Fort of Portsmouth and all the places of strength on the Sea-coasts were
in the hands of Papists It is true that when any one presumed to speak publickly of Religion he was put from his Pulpit if not from his Benefice It is true that when the Bishops refused to read the King's Declaration of Liberty of Conscience to Roman Catholicks under the Name of Dissenters they were sent to the Tower But to what purpose is all this they were alive still they Preached they had Pulpits and Churches whereas in France there was no such thing to be seen I but there was always reason to believe that King James who was so true a Friend to Lewis XIV and zealously bent on the same courses in agreement with him would in time push on things to such an issue to take effect in his own or his Successours days whom he was setting up as has already fallen out in France They were afraid of it I say and they had reason for the Popish Religion is a most insatiable Monster an implacable Enemy If it be allowed but room for one foot it will quickly usurp an entire Possession of all It makes profession of admitting no Partnership and of suffering no Rivals The English had forgot this Truth I know not how and suffered a Popish Prince to ascend the Throne The Cause of James II. his Misfortunes is to be looked for in the conduct of the French King It is he and he only that was the Cause thereof The English must of necessity have been very fast asleep not to awaken at the Cries of the infinite Numbers of miserable Creatures who went to carry their Afflictions and their Complaints to the Ears of the English Nation and who without speaking did pathetically express the meaning and weight of this important Advice Learn to have a care of Tyrants and Kings that are possessed by Jesuits The defence for King James is destined against King William Prince of Orange The Religion established by Law was entire and therefore his present Majesty as the Man reasons could have no just cause for passing into England Besides the Author endeavours to strengthen his Argument by the measures His Majesty took in Holland a Country where he had signalized himself more frequently than in England where he made it be blown about as this man says that his Father in Law was about to suspend the Penal Laws There are certainly Penal Laws in Holland against the Roman Catholicks but it is as certain saith he that the wisest Magistrates did judge that it was the Interest of the Republick to suspend their execution especially in the Province of Holland which is the most considerable amongst them God be praised for it You may now at last take notice of a publick confession that is express and in print That the Roman Catholicks are not persecuted in Holland Thus both Mr. Arnauld and all the Apologists for the French Persecution who were so bold as to complain of the Persecutions that their Church suffered in the Low Countries are declared to be Slanderers Note this well for these Gentlemen will say the contrary the very next day because they always speak according to their Interest but here it is their Interest to confess the truth that they may be in a capacity to conclude that the City of Amsterdam that of Rotterdam and that of Harlem had Power to suspend the Penal Laws that a King who is a Sovereign Prince can do as much as a particular City That if the Dutch without betraying their Religion might do this we have no reason to complain of a Catholick who was willing to shew the same gentleness to those of his own Religion as a Protestant Common-wealth does It is necessary that King William himself be concerned in the Proof He had a very great Number of Catholicks in his Guards and likewise amongst his Domestick Servants It is not then an Argument of Religion saith he that he does charge it as a Crime upon his Father-in-Law that being himself a Catholick he did suffer the Catholick Religion to be exercised within his Dominions Our Author is not ill to please his Premises are false throughout and his Conclusion is very bad He supposes that the Prince of Orange would answer thus that his Father-in-Law permitted the Exercise of the Roman Religion in England as it is in Holland this is false Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter was Penned to shew the contrary to King James The Prince does agree that such Penal Laws should be repealed which might endanger the Lives of the Priests and might ensnare the Conscience He does allow that the Papists be tolerated in England as they are in Holland He does again suppose falsly that King James had granted nothing to the English Papists but what the Dutch had granted to the Romish Religion in their Countries It is Impudence without Example to affirm this It is notoriously known that the toleration of Papists in Holland is not established by any Law nor by any Decree suspending the Laws It is well known that the Papists have not entred into any Office of Justice and of the Government of the State they are only admitted into Military Employs but King James was for receiving them into all the Offices of the Kingdom and not only for suspending the Execution of the Penal Laws by a tacite Toleration of Religion as it is in Holland but by an express Cessation of the Laws themselves In the third Place he does falsly suppose that the King of England has the same Power with respect to Religion that the States of Holland have in their Country This is not so the States of Holland are Sovereign and Absolute in their Provinces without limitation for it is they who make Laws but the King of England makes no Laws but with the joynt Assent and Authority of Parliament and can change nothing in such as concern Religion any more than he can do in other Laws without the Parliament Lastly He is infinitely mistaken when he compares the Quality of the Toleration of the Popish Religion that is admitted in Holland to that which he would have established in England because in Holland the Sovereign Authority is Protestant and in England the Sovereign Authority was Popish There is a very great difference betwixt having Popish Subjects and Servants and having Popish Masters The States of Holland are very well content to have Popish Subjects and the Prince will admit Popish Servants but they would not have Masters of that Religion This was designed to be done in England Their Great Master was a Papist and that Master endeavoured that all others should become so And so it does not follow from the Prince's Goodness in admitting of Papists amongst his Servants that he ought to suffer that his Father-in-Law should commit the Offices and Places of Trust within the Kingdom into the hands of Papists The words also of Popery and Papists used in his present Majesty's Declaration are not pleasing to our Opponent That Man ought to have known that those Words
are used in the English Laws and the Publick Records of the Kingdom when they speak of the Roman Religion and of those who profess it as in France we are called the pretended Reformed in the Edicts and Public Ordinances this Name is no more honourable for us than that of Papists for them who call themselves Catholicks But he likewise takes exception at this Expression To introduce Popery into three Kingdoms On which he spends a great Article to prove that nothing can be worse express'd that the business is not about introducing the Catholick Religion into three Kingdoms where it always was and where it is still And here he falls on Controversie to prove that the Roman Religion is the Ancient Religion that ours is an Innovation that is without Mission and without Miracles Must he not be very destitute of Judgment to shew himself so mightily pedantick on a Subject that is purely politick Is it not hereby very manifest that he loves to leave the Point and take occasion of one Word upon which he may exercise his talent by making thereupon a common-place To answer in good earnest Reflections that are so impertinent would argue one to be Master of as little sense as he is who makes them The Grievances of the Prince and of the English which they owed to James II. had not only a respect to the Violation of the Laws of the Land but to the Subversion of Religion Yet our Author has so much insisted on the point and spent so much breath on the head of Religion in such a declamatory method and with such vigorous efforts that he has left very little more to say in the justification of his Hero as to Affairs of State and therefore he has but one word concerning it and only touches upon one of the Articles that the Prince has expressed in his Declaration and that is that the Liberty that King James gave of placing Popish Judges on the Bench reduced the Estates and Fortunes of the Subjects to an uncertainty that was extremely irksom because the Sentences pronounced by the Judges who were not legal are reputed to be null and void tho' they were never so just Thus those who lose the Suit seeing themselves lye under the sentence of incompetent Judges will be sure not to let slip the first opportunity that shall present it self for their relief against that Judgment which would bring the Estates and Fortunes of private persons into an eternal uncertainty In opposition to this our Author pretends to plead endeavouring to make it appear that tho' the King should make a Judge illegally the Judge should nevertheless have a legal authority to give judgment and that the Sentence that is pronounced by him is without all question valid and binding for confirmation of which he cites the Law Barbarius Philippus by which it appeared that a Slave having obtained the Pretorship by surprize it was judged that his Determinations were not to be questioned It belongs to the English properly to make answer to this The Law Barbarius Philippus is a Rule of Prudence which neither amounts to a Natural Right nor a Necessary Law Naturally Acts done by a Subject who is incapable of bearing certain Characters are invalid All the Ordinances given by a Tyrant and Usurper are null and void as soon as ever the Tyrant is put from the Helm If a Turk should usurp the Papal Chair or turn Priest all the Oaths that should be administred by him would be manifestly void In like manner all the Sentences given by one who is incapable of being a Judge and whom the Law barrs from sitting on the Bench are naturally of no force If the Sovereign in consideration of the consequence and to avoid trouble is pleased to continue them it is in his power so to do and they shall bind but it is absolutely necessary that the pleasure of the Sovereign intervene in this case for giving force to such Judgments The Law Barbarius makes this easily appear If the English had any Law that could give a validity to Judgments and Decrees of a Judge tho' he were made so contrary to the Laws it is true that the Sentences given by Popish Judges might remain in force but it is so far from being so that on the contrary it is manifestly true the English have Laws according to which every Sentence past by Judges appointed against Law ought to be revised We are not to spend all our thoughts on these smaller matters and neglect so many Grievances and Complaints of the Nations against the Government of James II. Is it nothing for example that he usurped a power of dispensing with the Laws Is it nothing that he made himself an Absolute Sovereign and exercised Arbitrary Power Of what use are the Laws if it be in the Prince's power to suspend them by hindring their execution whenever he pleases and acting directly contrary to what the Laws ordain If it were thus I would rather now chuse to live at Paris or Constantinople than at London and be subject to Lewis XIV or Mahomet than to the Government of a King of England The Authority of the Judges of the Kings-Bench who were generally of opinion that the Dispensing Power was annexed to the Crown is not sufficient For it is well known who those Judges were that most of them were Papists and by some means or other those that were not were brought over to joyn with the rest Can it be thought that a few ill Men who betrayed their Country and sold their Liberties should be the Sovereign Disposers of the Interest of such a Vast Number of People Is it nothing that the King of England prevailing over the weakness of the Kingdom of Scotland had a considerable success in the design of making himself Absolute Sovereign having in his Declarations used a Style that is more Despotick than that of the Grand Seignior affecting to insert therein almost in every Period the Terms We Will We Command of Full Power of Absolute Power Have we not seen this with our Eyes Is it nothing that all the Charters and Priviledges were taken from the English Cities and Corporations and particularly from the City of London by horrible Violences and unjust Procedures to the end that the King might be in a capacity to fill up the vacancies of Offices and Places of Trust with Court-Slaves and Enemies of the Protestant Religion Is it nothing that the Bishops who are Peers of the Realm were imprisoned against all sort of Law only because they were so bold as to make a most humble Address to the King by way of Remonstrance against his Ordinance Where are there any Monarchical States in which it is not permitted to make such Remonstrances to their Sovereign Is it nothing to threaten all the Judges of the Kingdom with the loss of their Places and actually to deprive them thereof upon their not consenting to repeal a fundamental Law of the Land Is it