parts thereof And as to the first we will find That he was so far from Governing according to Law that so soon as he thought himself out of the danger of the Monmouth Rebellion by his Victory over him in the West and Triumph on Tower-hill and that his severe Prosecution of the remainder of that Party had secured him against all other opposition his whole Government was a perfect opposition to the Law after that most of the great Employments of the Nation were disposed of by him to persons by Law uncapable of them At Court we had a Secretary and Privy-Seal Lords of the Treasury and Privy-Counsellors with their President of that sort in the Administration of Justice we had Judges Sheriffs Justices of the Peace with a long c. of unqualified persons in the Cities our Mayors and other Magistrates were so the Army which was wholly against Law was made more illegal by its unqualified Officers and the other persons whereof it consisted the Tower in ill hands and the very Church not free of such Vermin the chief Government of Ireland given to one that designed to dismember it from this Crown Were not our Persons imprisoned against Law witness the Seven Bishops Were we not disseised of our Estates against Law and without Tryal witness Dr. Hough Were not Taxes levied on us without and against Law witness the Custom-house Books Were not some of us Hanged up as Criminals without any colour of Law at least less than was for the Dispensing Power or Ecclesiastical Commission so little as could not satisfie him that was well satisfied in both the other These are Instances of the breach of the Law in the case of our Liberties Lives and Properties and that our Souls might be endangered were not Schools and Churches opened to the Romish Clergy Had any of their Converts the reward due to them by Law and to keep us under these Oppressions without redress Were not our Parliaments put off and Prorogued from time to time and not suffered to sit at the end of three years as the Law requires This was the condition of the Executive Power And as for the Legislative it was far worse and wholly over-thrown by the claim of an Absolute power to which we were to submit without reserve the Dispensing with the Ecclesiastical Laws implied a Power of Dispensing with all the rest and the Dispensing with any one was an Usurpation on the Legislative For to what end should the Parliament make Laws if they were to be of force only during the King's pleasure If that were so all their costs and pains could not ensure them one Law for so long time as would be requisite for their Journey home and as the Suspension of one Law is certainly the making of another As for instance the Law imposes Twelve-pence for not coming to Church on Sunday the Proclamation suspending that Act enacts that I may stay at home or go to a worse place without paying any thing so it seems to me that the last is the higher Power for to controle an Act requires more Authority than contributed to the first making of it as the daily experience of our Courts shews us the King's-Bench controles the rest but no inferiour Court puts any check to the proceedings thereof Lastly The Kings of England never claimed nor exercised such a Power before 62 and 72 and then the Endeavours were but faint the Crown wished for such a Power and afterwards on the Remonstrance of the Commons promised it should never be drawn into Consequence or Example The imposing Taxes and Oaths on the Subject was always looked upon as another branch of the Legislative Power but both were exercised by the late King As to the last part mentioned we have seen the late King corrupting the Elections by the meanest Arts a perpetual regulation of the Corporations until they could find a Sett of Men that would engage to chuse such persons as should be recommendeâ— by the Court and daily displacing all persons that would not engage their Votes But this was not all the injury done us in relation to the House of Commons we had Sheriffs and Mayors not qualified for their Offices so not capable of guiding the Elections Formerly under weak Princes and in ill times there has been attempts made against the Constitution of the Kingdom but never so Universal an one or with such success as now neither was it ever attempted before this Reign to pack a whole House of Commons New Creations has done something of that sort on the Peers and there has been Irregularities in particular Elections but it was never attempted before to rob us of the whole House of Commons at present the Crown neither claims nor aims at any of these things now the Law runs in its old channel and that it may still do so the King has given us Judges of the ablest of their profession and the Chancery from a State-Courtâ— is now become a Court of Conscience the Crown pretends to no absolute Authority either in suspending or altering our Laws the King concurs with his People in all Laws they have prâ—pared for his Royal Assent and wishes to be no greater than the Laws of England make him with respect to the House of Commons he has seized on no Charters nor used any Regulations but the present Members of that House are the most unanimously chosen that ever any were And now let the World judge whether our Religion Laws and Liberties are not in a better condition than in the late Reign Our Author tells us that the second Article shews the ways and means King James used to effect what he was charged with in the first which is an assuming and exercising a Power of dispensing with and suspending Laws and the execution of them without Act of Parliament Our Author is so modest as not to deny this or the fatal consequences thereof to the Kingdom but excuses it as done by colour of the Prerogative whereas the Prerogative is nothing but the Law of the Land and a part of it with which the King is intrusted for the good of his People He then tells us That the present Parliament have made some Acts that Abrogate old and others that are new Laws But unless he shews us that the King assumes 〈◊〉 Power to himself the Times are not parallel and that is what he promised to make appear Our Author in this and in other Sections is witty or thinks himself so upon our present Parliament calling them Self-created and that they have assumed God's Prerogative of creating themselves out of nothing as if God had done so For the taking off that Assertion and clearing of that matter I must desire you to remember that the Essential parts of an English Parliament are the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons chosen by the several Shires and Towns of the Nation as their Representatives Now the Convention that met at Westminster the 22d of
January last was composed of these not a County City or Borough of England but appeared there by their Representatives and the whole Peers did or might have appeared by themselves or Proxies so that here was a Parliament in substance and the Author will not pretend that any thing was wanting but the King 's Writ to call them together To which I say first That anciently when Parliaments met at the King's Court on fixed times as the Feast of the Nativity and other Feasts every year we have no account of any Summons because the Time and Place of meeting being known that was needless But these Times are so dark that I will not insist much on this nor on the Election of our Kings in the Saxon Times which was done by an Assembly convened certainly without the King 's Writ or any Authority from one I confess that in the ordinary Administration of Affairs the King's Writ is requisite to bring the Nation to a great Council But this is not required so much for any Authority derived from thence as to keep up an agreement and harmony in the Government if this were otherwise all Members could sit in the House of Commons that have such a Writ authorizing their Election which not so especially in long-liv'd Parliaments such as King Charles the Second's was there a Majority of the House might have been of such as were Elected by vertue of a Warrant from the Speaker In 73 about Thirty Members Elected by vertue of the King's Writs were not suffered to sit but were dismissed the House and the Speaker Issued Warrants for new Elections so that in these cases the Authority seems to proceed more from the Speaker's Warrant than the King 's Writ But I say that from this usual practise it does not follow that the Estates may not Assemble otherwise in extraordinary Cases As in this Hereditary Monarchy Suppose the Royal Family were extinct must the Nation remain still in confusion never come into any form of Government because we cannot have the King 's Writ to Summon a Parliament that is unreasonable therefore the Representatives of the Nation must meet and settle the Government without any Writ of Summons this is no impossible supposition though it never happened in this Kingdom because it has happened in other places and upon such occasions the Government has been re-settled by the States Next Supposing that on the Death of the reigning King his Son or Successor is far distant this is no fictitious supposition because it really happened In what condition must we be until the return of our King or directions from him The Authority of our Judges Sheriffs c. determined with the King's Life so they cannot act therefore in this necessity to avoid Anarchy and Confusion the States of the Kingdom must meet and settle the Government by appointing Officers and doing what else is requisite for the safety of the Kingdom And this they did upon the Death of Henry the Third without any Writ or Authority from his absent Son After the Death of William Rufus the Crown of this Kingdom was given to King Henry by an Assembly of the people not chosen by Writ this shews also the regard they had in those days to the Lineal succession These instances shew that the King 's VVrit of Summons is not so essentially necessary to the Being of Parliaments but that the people of England may and have assembled in some cases without them of which we have a very late instance in the Parliament to which the Royal Family is much obliged and to which the Nation was more obliged than to any but the one now sitting I mean the Parliament that brought back the Royal Family This Parliament met without the King 's VVrit and was called in the Name of the Keepers of the Liberties of England and yet fate made Laws and acted as a Parliament with King Charles the second for several Months together and yet no Man can say there was so great reason for their continuing together as for the present Parliaments we had not then so many Enemies abroad and at home the Kingdom was in full quiet the French and Irish were not then our avowed Enemies nor ready to devour us a forty days delay then had not put us in the power of either of them as probably it had now done and if the King had now taken that course the consequence had only been the trouble of Electing the same persons a-new and postponing the necessary preparations for our security for two Months at least And if we further compare the Case in question with these I have mentioned we will find that it has much the advantage in other circumstances for that Parliament laboured under more difficulties than the want of VVrits of Summons a doubt that the Long Parliament was then in being by vertue of King Charles the First 's unfortunate Act that it should not be dissolved without their own consent and in 59 King Charles was at Breda or not much further off and he would gladly have Issued VVrits if they had been desired of him but his Brother cancelled and tore those he had once Issued that Parliament met without any request from the Body of the people this at the Express request of the City of London and almost the whole Nation and if that Parliament was called by those that Exercised the chief Authority in the Nation so was this by him that at our own desire had taken the Administration of Affairs upon him though the Royal Line was not extinct yet in October last the Kingdom was left as much in confusion and without government as if that misfortune had befallen us a Parliament by VVrits we could not have and without a Parliament it was impossible to settle the Kingdom so that we had no choice but either to continue without any Government as we were or to meet in Parliament as we did which being formerly done in other Countries as well as our own And since the King is pleased to consult with them we must acquiesce in their Judgments and obey them as the Legislative power of this Kingdom notwithstanding our Author's Jests here and his Assertions in the fourth Article That this is done without precedent or colour of Law The third Article Article is His committing and prosecuting the Bishops for humbly Petitioning to be excused from consenting to the said assumed Power of Suspending the Laws and their execution For answer to which our Author refers us to what he said on this subject before and therefore so do I. He tells us further on this Head That the present Government remembring the Proverb Felix quem faciunt is resolved to avoid the Rocks the last split upon which I look upon to be no ill news For now if we will take the Author's word there will be no further attempts against our Church or Religion our Laws or Properties but God-bethanked we have better assurance than the Author
us to over-throw their Babel when they had almost brought it as they fancied to perfection And urges further That the King being willing to have his last intended Parliament as free as his People could desire had actually restored the old Charters to all the Corporations in England long before the Prince Landed Here the Author nifies the King's good intentions to us and would have us look upon his last Acts of kindness as the sole effects of his Goodness when alas they proceeded only from his Fears which will appear plain if we consider the Times of the several Passages relating to this matter The 9th of September New-Stile Mr. d' Avaux's Memorial to the States-General telling them of the strict Alliance between the two Crowns tells us of the Preparations making against us and came to our Court the 10th of September Old-Stile After ten days Consideration a Parliament is resolved on and the 21st the King by his Proclamation assures us of his kind Intentions to the Nation and Church and therein tells us he is willing the Roman Catholicks should remain incapable of being Members of the House of Commons a mighty favour The 26th of September the Lord-Lieutenants were authorized to grant Deputations to such Gentlemen as had been lately removed from the Lieutenancy and such Gentlemen were to be restored to the Commission of the Peace as had been lately laid aside The 28th of September his Majesty by Proclamation acquaints the Nation with the intended Invasion and recalls the Writs for the Parliament The 2d of October the King declared he would restore the Charter of London and gives us a General Pardon of the same date The 5th he Dissolves the Ecclesiastical Commission The 17th of October the other Corporations of the Kingdom are restored all which favours were conferred on us after they were terrified with the News of the Invasion so that we may rest fully assured they were the first fruits of that blessed design and the meeting of the Parliament was discharged Twenty days before the Restitution of the Corporations which by our Author's computation is a long time otherwise the Corporations were not restored long before the Prince Landed as our Author says they were The 9th Article is against Prosecutions in the King's Bench for Matters and Causes cognisable only in Parliament and by divers other arbitrary and illegal courses The last Clause is omitted and so might all our Author thinks fit to say in answer to the first being only That be doubts not but those Judges câ—n justifie their Proceedings and that some Parliaments have brought matters before them that were not properly cognisable by them But what those things are he does not tell us but be it so and let them and their Advocates justifie them if they can But in the mean time does it follow that because one Court exceeds its bounds sometimes that therefore the King's-Bench may or how does this make the Parallel between the present and the late Times If he had told us that our Speaker had been Prosecuted in the King's-Bench for his Actings as such and Fined 5 or 10000 l. he had said more to the purpose than he has done in the whole Book The Author says the tenth Article is about partial corrupt and unqualified Juries But he should also have added That divers Jurors in Tryals for High Treason were not Free-holders He knew the consequence of this matter in the brave Lord Russel's Case and therefore thought fit to pass it over in silence but tells us That the noise against Graham and Burton for such practises is now ouer for want of proof To which I say the thing is obvious though the steps of those that managed this work of darkness is not yet made plain and no wonder though the same should never happen considering how few persons but those concerned can have any knowledge of it it is not likely the party corrupted will proclaim his own villany and shame so that if the said persons if they were the managers do but keep their own Counsel no positive Witnesses can be had against them But then considering the Nature of the Case the great Sums of Money said to be laid out privately at Law will satisfie Men not over-credulous But if our Author will have a little patience he may hear what proof there is against those Gentlemen the House of Commons having lately ordered a Charge to be brought In against them which was not done sooner because they had matters of far greater importance to dispatch The eleventh Article is requiring excessive Bail in Criminal Cases to elude the benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subject The truth of this is not denied neither is it justified only the late Acts suspending the Habeas Corpus Act are exclaimed against which I must say is one of the greatest favours imaginable to those most concerned in it if it but prevent them from running too far in dangerous courses it had been a great Blessing to the Lord Dundee and his Family if the Estates of Scotland had committed his Person when they first observed him tampering though my kindness for some of those unfortunate persons then in custody makes me hope they were kept there as well to secure themselves as the Government yet I believe there are not many of them dare pretend to that innocency It must not be forgotten in this place how his Majesty like him whose Vicegerent he is mingles Mercy with his Justice and that he sent one of these Prisoners a considerable Sum of Money to support him from want not knowing how plentifully he might be provided from his own Estate with which it was not easie for him to hold any Communication our Author will find it hard to give me such an instance of Generosity in his King I have only one Remark more on this matter which is That if all Princes were endued with such Moderation and Clemency as our present King there would be but little need to secure us by Laws against that Wolf the Prerogative and that it is much better trusting Power with some Kings than others The late King could commit seven of our Peers at one time without and against the Law whereas his Majesty though encompassed with avowed Enemies in two of his Kingdoms and some as discontented as the Author in the third And though by the late Statutes he had Power to commit I may say at his pleasure yet I believe those so committed by him will scarce exceed the number lately carried to the Tower at one time so that upon experience of his prudent Moderation and that he does not use his Power for the Oppression of those that do not love him I see not why the Parliament may not continue this Trust for some time longer at least until Ireland be as well setled as the rest of the Kingdoms The 12th Article is by our Author made up of two I suppose on purpose to lessen the
Neighbouring Princes will not be denied but whether with more than one of them I question and whether thereby he did not sink the Reputation of his Justice and Honour both abroad and at home will appear by the respect he had at Rome where one would have thought he should have been courted at another rate for a Protestant instance the States denial of Dr. Burnet and not suffering the Doctor to with-draw though he desired it is sufficient and the Carriage of the French at Hudsons-hay shews their kindness as well as respect If our Author had considered these things surely he would not have bragged of the good Correspondence he held with his Neighbour Princes and States or of the Reputation he had acquired to himself abroad When I met the Author praising the late King for his Mercy and Compassion to his Enemies I began to suspect my Eyes and was in hopes that he would have brought us so good news from the West that we should speak no more of the Western Campaign and that the Numbers that were said to be executed there were only in Effigie and that he had the very persons to produce sound and in good health without I could have done this I should not have mentioned the other especially if I had been of the Author's opinion that he was Master of so many other good qualities I should think that the using this had been enough to make people suspect the rest of the Character for if that had been true there had been no need to add this so notoriously otherwise I have read the History of England and upon a serious reflection thereon I believe it may be truly said That so many of the Common people were not put to death by the Hand of Justice and driven into Exile for all the Rebellions of these 600 years as were served for that of Monmouth's which did not last six weeks the weaker Sex not spared But for the Duke of Alva's Government of the Netherlands Foreign Story could not have afforded a precedent but then I do not find that great Man praised for his Lenity in this we are an Original neither do I find that he was more exact in his Scrutiny than we were at Westminster where we were told that the Rebels were 6000 of which 2000 killed and only 2000 brought to Justice the other 2000 our Grand-Jury were directed to find out and yet after all this some people will brag of this Man's forgiving Nature the sobriety of his Life and discountenancing Debauchery may be true as to excessive Drinking but the placing his spurious Issue in the highest degree of Honour is no great discouragement to the other sort of Debauchery For his Assiduity in his Councils and Treasury and the rest of that Paragraph as it is needless to examine them so certainly the truth of them is no proof that the late King intended the happiness of his Subjects in general The next Paragraph asserts That it was the late King's opinion that Liberty of Conscience would be grateful to a great many of his Subjects and would invite Forreigners to fix their Habitations amongst us to our great advantage that it was the best expedient to bring us to a brotherly Love and to prevent the Calamities that befel this Kingdom in his Father's time and that he had this Notion still fixed in him with a design to signalize his Reign thereby In opposition to which I will endeavour to shew that the late King had no such glorious aim and that thereby he only intended to subvert the established Religion of these Kingdoms which will plainly appear if we consider first how different such a method is to the fundamental principles of his Religion as well as the practise of all Ages those that believe there is no Salvation out of the Church which is only one and that theirs if they have any Bowels of Compassion or Charity will endeavour the enlarging the pale of that Church And then that Hereticks are to be extirpated upon the penalty of having their Territories given away to others where this duty is neglected is as essential a part of his Religion as General Councils can make it therefore it were an injury to his Charity and Piety to suspect he would not use his power so as became a zealous and submissive Son of the Church and what could be a greater brand to the sincerity of his Religion than decreeing counter to infallible Councils it were as easie reconciling Toleration to Infallibility as such actions with being a good Catholick unless they were sanctified with a good intention and done for the good of the Church but to say he did not understand so much of the Arcana of his Religion cannot be supposed without saying he understood nothing of it and though he did not it cannot be doubted but he would have been told of his duty by some Monitory Briefs from Rome St. Peter's Successor used to be so kind to Princes as to lay before them the guilt and danger of actions less favourable to Hereticks and to call upon them to avoid both by executing the Decrees of the Church against them if it be said that the Roman Church at least the Guides of it approved what King James did in this matter and that to preserve his Conscience the Decrees of the Councils were suspended as to him I do verily believe it and think that it follows from thence that they knew what hook lay under that gilded bait otherwise I know not how the same persons could approve of the French King's Edict of October 85. annulling the perpetual and irrevocable Edict of Nantes and the barbarous manner of the execution of it and the late King's Declaration in 87. giving a general Liberty of Conscience two Decrees that concur only in one thing that they are both against the Laws of their several Lands In my opinion this would look so like an affront to that mighty Monarch's Conduct that unless he were likewise privy to the plot his Resentment would not be satisfied with less than a solemn Renunciation and taking new measures now he has the late King so much at his devotion And I doubt not if this proceeding had displeased him but in his late Contests with the Pope we should have heard him upbraiding his Holiness with this kindness to Hereticks but since neither of these have followed and that neither the King of France nor the Pope is offended at our Indulgence we may lawfully conclude there was little kindness thereby intended to us Secondly If this Notion had been still fixed in the late King and had he always been of opinion that none ought to be oppressed and persecuted for matters of Religion he would still have acted consonant to this principle which that he did not do is plain from his concurring with and promoting the enacting of the severest Laws against Dissenters in his Brother's time and also from his first Act of Government the rigorous imposing
Council and put them upon some difficulty and that there was no expedient to be found but either to acquit or commit them This seems strange and is not only a reflection on the Lawyers of the Board but on those learned Gentlemen that were attending for surely none of the four were so ignorant they could have told the King you may and ought to dismiss them for this time with a Reprimand and acquaint them that as soon as the Term comes which was not far off an Information should be exhibited against them for their Seditious Libel and that if they did not appear to answer the same Process would issue against them those that had been Chief Justices of that Court and the King's Council knew this very well but that did not answer their ends they were in hast and by this method the Term might have been spent without any Tryal And what is more they would not have known how to have avoided the Archbishop's Presence to the affair they were to have in hand soon this looks so like their Politicks that it finds greater belief than any positive proof we have for it deserves The next Assertion is That the Bishop's Tryal was managed favourably and that over-sights were committed in the want of proof and suffering the dispencing Power to be so fully argued These were certainly over sights but they were such as were not to be remedied by any diligence and should have been considered before the Prosecution was resolved on for it was obvious to the meanest capacity that the Bishops would make that defence but their rage blinded them in more particulars than our Author mentions else they had never forgotten that the Archbishop was not at White hall or that he had not done any Act in the County where they laid their Venue I formerly mentioned their want of proof of the publishing and I might here add those other ingredients of a Libel Falsity and Malice had they not been transported with Rage or something more extravagant could they hope that twelve English-men would believe it unlawful to Petition the King had not their former success with Juries been great they would never have attempted so extravagant a thing With what patience the late King endured the rejoycing at the Bishop's acquittal I know not but it would seem by the Proceedings of his Ecclesiastical Commissioners and their Order of the 12th of July to all the Chancellors of the Kingdom to return them the Names of all such of our Clergy as did not Read the King's Declaration on the 16th day of August following that he was not resolved to let the matter end so and though the Jury had acquit them he had a Sett of Commissioners that knew better the sin of disobeying his Majesty's Commands and if destruction had not come suddenly upon them it is not to be imagined what Examples we should have had of his fury if we compute according to the Durham pattern we should have had at least Five thousand suspended Ministers in the Kingdom which does many times exceed the Numbers that were deprived either on King Edward or Queen Elizabeth's Reformation And then as to the King's Justice in the matter of which our Author says none have reason to complain it was making a Petition a Libel and the delivery of it to himself in his Bed-chamber or Closet a Publishing of it and surely there was as little Justice or Clemency in the last part of the Tragedy to displace the Judges for discharging their Consciences and declaring the Law to be as really it was was so arbitrary that the Great Lewis could have done no more if his Commands had been contradicted and to do that so suddenly after the Tryal and to supersede them before they had finished the Circults to which they had been appointed did so much proclaim his rage that few people will be perswaded that he would patiently have endured the Huzza's our Author speaks of if he had known how to help it He supposes we will lay no great stress upon the King 's placing some Roman Catholicks in Colledges it being known that the Kings of England have in all Ages dispenced with Qualifications required by the Vniversity-Statutes especially since the Judgment for the Dispencing Power How this Judgment comes to be urged here I do not see unless it be because the word Dispence is used in both for that Judgment as extravagant as it was had no influence on our Universities for that great reason That nothing ought to hinder the King of the Use and Service of his Subjects has no force here unless we allow that the corrupting the Youth of the Nation was the service the King had for those Popish Emissaries and then that other reason That the Laws of England are the King's Laws does not come up to the present case because the Magdalen-Statutes are also the Founder's Laws and therefore not to be changed without his or his Successor's consent but supposing the King had such a Power by the Law was that the way he swore to support the Church of England was not that trusting our Sheep and Lambs to the Wolf to keep In this particular as in all others of Honour or Profit the Papist had the better much of the Dissenter in whose favour we do not find one Mandate to the University These are the particulars our Author says gave the greatest cause of clamour and the reason was because they shaked the Foundations of our security and vested the whole Legislature in the King in the support of which Usurpation he was resolved to ruin all that thwarted him on the meanest pretence this made his Rule odious and terrible to the Subject How could we account any thing either of Religion or Property our own when the doors were opened and we were only beholden to the Jesuit's modesty for not entring and stripping us of as much of either of them as they thought fit Before I have done with this Head I must desire you to take notice of our Author'â— modesty in reckoning the late King's injuries to the Church of â—ngland if he had pleased he might have instanced more as the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge's Case who for refusing to admit Alban Francis a Benedictine Monk on the King's Mandate to the degree of Master of Arts without taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy appointed to be taken by several Acts of Parliament was deprived of that Office and also suspended ab officio beneficio of his Mastership of Magdaten-Colledge during his Majesty's pleasure This sentence was pronounced the 7 th of May 87 and never relaxed until the General Jubilee on the Bishop's Address October 88. His four new Bishops and keeping Bishopricks vacant all that fell in his time in Ireland and making worse use of some in England entertaining a Nuntio publickly at Court setting a Jesuit at Council-Table were no great Complements to the Church of England nor their publick Schools and Mass-houses the
regulation of Corporations shewed them but little respect with many other things of this sort that might be mentioned I am sorry the Author's indiscretion should have forced me to give so many instances of that Man's failings he fancied had all that could be wished and do now leave it to you and all indifferent persons to judge whether the Author has made out his first Proposition of King James's good intentions The second Proposition laid down by our Author is That the late King's designs were totally frustrated but whether by ignorance or treachery or both is not worth while to examine In his discourse on this Head he mentions several over fights in the then Ministers of State but instead of four he should have given us many more wherewith I will not trouble my self at present my design being to Answer his Book not to Mend it I will therefore hasten to the third Proposition which is That our condition in respect of our Laws Liberties and Properties is now worse than it was or was like to have been under King James In the handling whereof our Author pretends to consider the several Grievances we laboured under in King James his time as they are summed up in the Declaration of the 12th of February last which filled up our vacant Throne and that he will draw the Parallel between the late and present Times impartially This I must confess is a very proper method for his design which is all the good I can say of the undertaking I will follow him through the several Articles as laid down and hope plainly to demonstrate the malice and false glosses of all he says and if that be well done I think little more need be said in Confutation of the rest of the Book The first Article is That King James did endeavour to subvert and extirpate the Protestant Religion the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom the other Articles are only the means which he used to this end In answer to which he says The late King aimed at nothing but Liberty to all sorts of Dissenters and that Roman Catholicks might have their share of ease 2. That few Converts were made in his time 3. And that having armed his Roman Catholicks in his last extremity they did not amount to the fortieth part of his Army nor to the 300 fighting Men in his Kingdom therefore they could afford him small assistance 4. That the Church flourished in his time many Dissenters being then brought into its Communion 5. That now the Church of England and Episcopacy is in danger if Protestancy be not as appears by the late Act of Toleration wherein Turcism is not excepted though Popery be 6. That Episcopacy is abolished in Scotland and they have a Party in the Convention here endeavouring the same thing 7. That we have lost the Doctrine of our Church-Loyalty and Non-resistance 8. That we have seen a total Abolition of the Laws for we have changed the Hereditary Monarchy into an Elective one and destroyed all Government by declaring an Original Power in the People This with some scandalous and unjust Reflections on his present Majesty to which I will not give so much countenance as an Answer is the substance of what he says on the first Article which for Method's sake I have sub-divided into eight Particulars to each of which I will propose some Considerations except to the first of which I have said so much already that it is needless to say more But that if the late King had been as our Author says Master of the Wisdom we could have wished him he would never have done so many mean harsh and superstitious things for no purpose whatsoever unless it were to hinder what our Author says he only designed From hence I think we may strongly conclude that he designed more than Ease for Roman Dissenters To the second no body would have said that few Converts were made in his time that did not wish them more Was there any Order of Men amongst us free Some of the Nobility in all the three Kingdoms some of our Clergy Lawyers Souldiers and of all other ranks had actually declared and it is too much to be feared that many waited only for the Repeal of the Penal Laws though they cared not for their Souls nor stood in awe of Damnation yet they dreaded the Statute against being reconciled But then if their Numbers were but small the fault was not the King 's for he made the full use of the Arguments in his Power discountenancing the stedfast and rewarding those that came over to him the Great Seals of two of the Three Kingdoms were in such hands and surely England will not brag much of their Protestant Chancellor to go to Mass was the certain way to Preferment as might be instanced in many particulars and we cannot forget what took the Treasurer's Staff from the Earl of Rochester To the third That the Papists of Fngland are not the 300th fighting Man I will not dispute but that they were not the 40th Man of the late Army is certainly false if he had told us in plain English that there was but one or two of them in a Company all persons that had been conversant in the places where they were Quarter'd would have known the contrary therefore he chose other words and yet says the same thing which is plain when we consider that our Companies consisted of about 50 Men but for easiness of computation we will allow them to be 60 which by our Author's proportion is only three Papists to two Companies I might here mind our Author that the Irish Army was Papist which multiplied by 40 had made an Army big enough for the Great Mogull But I will yield that our Author did not include the Irish Army when he made the 40th Man the proportion of Papist and yet they ought not to be forgotten when we are speaking of King James's Popish Forces But his Expression being That the Papists armed in his last extremity were not the 40th part of his Army The Party that came from Ireland in October 88 must be included or he was not then or afterwards in extremity Now supposing no Papists in his Army before and that Party being at least 3000 by the Author's Rule of proportion his Army ought to have consisted of 120000 Men but his Army was not so great and the Papists of it more so that another estimate of them must be taken if we throw away the cypher and read a 4th instead of a 40th part I believe we shall be nearer the matter But since that and a much greater force was not sufficient to enslave this Nation we must conclude he had other Tools Forreign or Domestick to carry on the Cause To the fourth That the Church flourished in the late King's time if our Author means that we had many good and learned Men then in it I must grant it but then it must be granted to me that he
and that as soon as conveniently could be it should be called in at the value it issued out and accordingly so it was But that is not practicable now at least to the advantage of any more of the Nation than the last Possessors all the other hands it passes through being certainly losers if in the Neighbourhood it be not as much valued as my Silver one which doubtless it will not be It is no strange thing to have Money inhanced something above the intrinsick value it has been the misfortune of most States to be forced in difficult times to make use of this expedient to increase their Coin But then as there always was an assurance from such Government that it should not only be received in all Payments to be made at the Exchequer but also called in at last so there was also some proportion or deâ—orum kept in the Advancement Thus in the worst of the late times when the Duke of Ormond Coined his own Plate and all that the respect to him or the Cause that he defended could gather together he thought it sufficient to add a tenth part and so made Five shillings out of Four and six-pence So in the Harp-money we find a fourth part added and a Nine-pence was issued out for a Shilling So that in the first Case I had Nineteen pounds instead of Twenty pounds and in the worst Fifteen pounds whereas from King James and his People I shall receive but Sixteen shillings Eight-pence for my Twenty pounds which is but the Twenty-fourth part of what I ought to have received This is the first time that ever any thing pretending to the Name of a Government was so Bankrupt as to issue Money that did not carry intrinsick value above the Twenty-fourth part of its Name The Story of the Frogs in the Fable was formerly so Satyrically applied that our Author should have avoided the bringing it into our Memory but he writes without considering the Consequences or how severely his Allegations may be returned England is 'twixt York and Thee The Fable of the Frog He the devouring Stork and Thou the Log. So he justifies the late King 's retiring into France because all Princes and States besides France were actually engaged against him without considering the other edge that there was little Conscience and less Prudence in disobliging all the States of Europe in favour of France or how from hence we may argue That that King who has all the States of Europe on his back will be able to afford but little relief to his Exiled Ally And one would think the usage the late King met with when he was last in France was no temptation to run the risque of a second Command to retire out of the Territories of his most Christian Majesty But in this we must excuse him for certainly he has not only forgotten the Usage he met wiâ—â— there but also that ever he was there otherwise he would not have added to the Causes of his first Exile But then this Reciprocal Love between France and Him was no Argument why he might not have stayed at home his Fear was not from the Rabble as our Author says for they Huzza'd his return from Feversham but the truth is he feared a Parliament and that they would secure the Religion and Liberties of the Subject and so ruin all his hopes of establishing Popery which it seems he feared more than the Abdicating of his Crowns Our Author pretends he would have gone to Scotland but that his Fleet had deserted him and there was danger in the Land way To which I say a single Ship could have carried him to Scotland as well as France but then it was offered him to chuse his place of Residence and at what distance from the Parliament and with what number of Guards he pleased but he liked not this because it supposed a Parliament But since his Fears were so strong upon him that stay he durst not why did he not leave us some sort of Government Was there no Ballast so proper for his Ship as the Broad Seal which was never carried beyond Sea but once before and it was then reckoned as a crime in him that did it though the Cardinal left the King behind him but we had neither shadow nor substance left us which is the first Act of Kindness he ever did this Nation freeing us thereby from those Chains wherewith we had â—ashly bound our selves Towards the latter end our Author would perswade us That it is a Calumny cast upon the late King to say he endeavours to be re-instated singly upon a Popish Interest and goes about to prove this by his Proclamations A weak Argument this time of the day but he enforces it by the good treatment he gives the Irish Protestants But our Author might as well prove that the French King expects the Possession of the Palatinate and the neighbouring Territories from his kind usage of the inhabitants though King James's Army cannot take Towns the â—â—â—nch way yet to shew the World they have learned someâ—â—â—â—g from the French General sent to assist them they have burned them the French way and in this have been so good Scholars that they have out-done their Masters so that all his labour is not lost for they have lately Burned more Towns in Vlster than the King of France in Germany some of them we can reckon as in the County of Derry Newtown Lemaâ—addy-muffe Monymore Dawsons-bridge Kilrea Ballyagby in the County of Donegall Raphae Donegall in Tyrone-Omegh Castleâ—arfeild in Down Newry in the Counties of Cavan and Monaghan Castlesanderson Farnam and other good Houses if not some Towns which is one proof that what they did of this sort was out of rage and malice and not with any design to incommede or prejudice the English Army For what great relief could an Army find in one House But what puts this matter beyond all dispute they left the Town of Strabane seituate within ten Miles of Derry unburnt in the middle of their Rage and Flames because it belonged to the Earl of Abercorn who is a Papist and Lord Strabane of that Kingdom and all this havock has been made since the late King's Arrival there It is needless after this to mention the Plunderings and Robberies of every Protestant in the Kingdom but in fact so it is that not one of them has escaped and if this should be excused as done against his Will and without his Consent and as the out-rage of a cruel and ill-paid Army if it be so let him be blameless but then do not tell us of the good Treatment he hath given the Irish Protestants If the blame thereof be taken from him and placed to the account of the War he has justice done him without pretending to any Merit from his kindness to the Protestants which will be much lessened if we consider that not one single Man of the Nation has been redressed Flocks of Cattel cannot be
so spirited away but some part of them may and have been found out but little Restitution to the Proprietors and less of Punishment on the Offendors Then again though Robberies might have been in the Country and at a distanâ—â— from him yet it is something strange that he could not pâ—serve the place of his own Residence and the Country about it from such Violences for which he has done so little that no part of the Kingdom has greater reason to complain than they From these Considerations I am as much satisfied that the Royal Assent accompanied these Rapines as that it did that far greater one the Repeal of the Acts of Settlement How the Advocates of King James will maintain this Treatment of his Protestant Subjects I cannot tell neither can I tell how to reconcile his Speech to his pretended Parliament on the 7th of May proposing their relief against the Acts of Settlement as he softly phrased it and his Declaration to his pretended Subjects in England dated the day after that most Gracious Speech wherein he tells us That the Priviledges and Properties of his Protestant Subjects was his Care unless they say it was his Care and Endeavour how to destroy them We have heard of Mr. d'Avaux's demand That all Protestants should be dismissed the Council-Board for otherwise he could not disclose his Master's Secrets there which was immediately done We have heard from one of his Lords That both the late King and his Popish Council would rather hazard and lose Forty Crowns than be obliged to the Protestants for the possession of the Kingdom and design to re-gain his Dominions by the Arms of good Catholicks and the glorious Monarch of France and their reason for this is very comfortable to all English-men and Protestants being that in the first Case he must be tied and fettered with Conditions but in the other Case he would come in free and boundless and like an Absolute Conqueror might do what he pleased I thought I had done with our Author when I cast my Eye on a line as true as most of the rest That the King never tempted any of the Men of Honour to change their Religion I never had the honour of being Closetted so know not the Discourses usually practised there but it would be some disparagement to his and his Father-Confessor's Zeal to think that always forgotten But without insisting on that it is not to be imagined that so many turned Apostates without temptation or that the Treasurer's Staff carried none with it Our Author makes him kinder herein than his Promise in the Scotch Declaration not to use invincible necessity The Reflections due to this have been done by so much a better hand that I will forbear And having thus done with the Author it is time to draw to a Conclusion In order to which I will only observe upon the whole matter That the Subjects of this Kingdom during the Reign of King James were in so miserable a condition that they could call nothing their own but their Fears and sad Apprehensions of the worse things that were preparing for them When we heard we were to Obey without reserve we could not forget the Times of our happy Ancestors whose Obedience was guided by the known Laws of the Land and lament our own and Childrens fate that were to be ruled by the Arbitrary Will of one Man for whose Prudence and Moderation we could have no security When we saw a Power to Suspend some Laws put in Execution we could not but look on all the rest as lost since our Tenure was so precarious When we saw our Clergy so much oppressed in those early days we did not doubt Father Peter's Will or Power to improve that Spirit of Persecution as far as a blind Zeal or the French Pattern could carry it When we saw an Army maintained in time of Peace we could not forbear thinking sometimes on the French Dragoons and their way of Propagating the Faith In a word when we saw the strange Methods that were taken to procure a right House of Commons we could not but fear that our Misery would be perfected by those we formerly thought the Preservers of our Liberties and Properties And now that it hath pleased God to put an end to all these things and that we are not only free but have a long prospect of Happiness before us not to be destroyed but by our selves not to be lessened or impaired but by the influence of such Discourses as the Author 's on weak or unwary Men. Let us remember how much it concerns every one of us to oppose those designs which tend only to bring us into the same slavery we have so lately escaped The same did I say Alas as ill as we were before the Abdication upon his return that would be a desirable State unless we believe he has learned Mercy in France or that he is less a Papist than he was or of less Arbitrary Principles When Gratitude for the highest Obligations both the setting and keeping the Crown on his Head could not preserve us our Laws or Religion what must we expect from his Anger and Revenge And if we consider with what severity the weak Endeavours of Monmonth and his Party to Dethrone him were punished It is hard to imagine what Punishment is reserved for those that have actually displaced him or taken him at his word which he accounts the same thing and we must not think that his Thunder would only pursue those that have been active in the late Revolution but the whole Nation must be struck with it that it may not be in their power to do the same thing again and it would be a mighty Army he would think big enough to secure him from the like affront and of what sort they must be is not hard to determine I know it is needless to inlarge on these hints because you are fully perswaded that it is the most prudent as well as just Course to remain contented with the present Government and to contribute in our several Stations what in us lies to the support thereof FINIS ERRATA PAg. 3. Line 31. for October Read November P. 4. l. 32. r. so served P. 7. l. 34. r. November P. 37. l. 3. r. December P. 40. l. 19. after another r. Commandment In the same Line dele of the Commandments P. 41. l. 17. r. Commissioners P. 43. l. 10. r. twig instead of way P. 44. l. 36. r. support him P. 48. l. 11. r. Burgus P. 49. l. 5. r. Magnifies P. 52. l. 26. dele first of BOOKS Printed for Jâ—seph Watts at thâ— Angel in St. Pauls Church-yard THE History of Ireland from the First Conquest of it by the English to this time in two Parts Folio The Trial of the Lord Russel c. Of Colonel Sidney Folio Of Edward Fitzharris c. An Exact Diary of the late Expedition of his Majesty into England Quarto Representation of the Threatning Dangers Impending over Protestants in Great Britain before the coming of their Majesties King William and Queen Mary Treatise of Monarchy in two Parts 1. Concerning Monarchy in General and second concerning this Particular Monarchy Wherein all the Questions occurrent in both are stated disputed and determin'd Discourse of the Opposition of the Doctrine Worship and Practice of the Roman Church to the nature designs and characters of the Christian Faith by Gilbert Lord Bishop of Salisbury Quarto The True Test of the Jesuits or the spirit of that Society Disloyal to God their King and Neighbour Quarto Monsieur Jurieu's Account of the Extasies of the Shepperdess of Saou in Dauphine Quarto Reformed Devotions in Meditations Hymns and Petitions for every Day in the Week and every Holiday in the Year Twelves Cro. C. 114. Cro. C. 220.