unlawful manner among others Henry Carr George Broome Edw. Berry Benj. Harris Francis Smith Sen. Francis Smith Jun. and Jane Curtis Citizens of London Which Proceedings of the said Sir Will. Scroggs are a high Breach of the Liberty of the Subject destructive to the Fundamental Laws of this Realm contrary to the Petition of Right and other Statutes and do manifestly tend to the introducing of Arbitrary Power VI. That he the said Sir Will. Scroggs in further Oppression of his Majesty's Liege People hath since his being made Chief Justice of the said Court of Kings Bench in an Arbitrary manner granted divers general Warrants for Attaching the Persons and Seizing the Goods of his Majesty's Subjects not named or described particularly in the said Warrants By means whereof many of his Majesty's Subjects have been vexed their Houses entered into and they themselves grievously oppressed contrary to Law VII Whereas there hath been a Horrid and Damnable Plot contrived and carried on by the Papists for the Murthering the King the Subversion of the Laws and Government of this Kingdom and for the Destruction of the Protestant Religion in the same All which the said Sir William Scroggs well knew having himself not only Tried but given Judgment against several of the Offenders nevertheless the said Sir Will. Scroggs did at divers times and places as well sitting in Court as otherwise openly Defame and Scandalize several of the Witnesses who had proved the said Treasons against divers of the Conspirators and had given Evidence against divers other Persons who were then untried and did endeavour to disparage their Evidence and take off their Credit whereby as much as in him lay he did traiterously and wickedly suppress and stifle the Discovery of the said Popish Plot and Encourage the Conspirators to proceed in the same to the great and apparent Danger of his Majesty's Sacred Life and of the well-established Government and Religion of this Realm of England VIII Whereas the said Sir William Scroggs being advanced to be Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench ought by a sober grave and vertuous Conversation to have given a good Example to the King's Liege People and to demean himself answerable to the Dignity of so Eminent a Station yet he the said Sir William Scroggs on the contrary by his frequent and notorious Excesses and Debaucheries and his Prophane and Atheistical Discourses doth daily affront Almighty God dishonour his Majesty give countenance and incouragement to all manner of Vice and Wickedness and bring the highest scandal on the publick Justice of the Kingdom All which Words Opinions and Actions of the said Sir William Scroggs were by him spoken and done traiterously wickedly falsly and maliciously to alienate the Hearts of the King's Subjects from his Majesty and to set a Division between him and them and to subvert the Fundamental Laws and the Establisht Religion and Government of this Kingdom and to Introduce Popery and an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government and contrary to his own knowledge and the known Laws of the Realm of England and thereby he the said Sir William Scroggs hath not only broken his own Oath but also as far as in him lay hath broken the King Oath to his People whereof he the said Sir William Scroggs representing his Majesty in so high an Office of Justice had the Custody for which the said Commons do Impeach him the said Sir William Scroggs of the High-Treason against our Sovereign Lord the King and his Crown and Dignity and other the High Crimes and Misdemeanours aforesaid And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves the Liberty of Exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Accusation or Impeachment against the said Sir William Scroggs and also of Replying to the Answer that he shall make thereunto and of Offering proofs of the Premises or of any other Impeachments or Accusations that shall be by them exhibited against him as the Case shall according to the Course of Parliament require Do pray that the said Sir Will. Scroggs Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench may be put to Answer to all and every the Premises and may be committed to safe Custody and that such Proceedings Examinations Tryals and Judgments may be upon him had and used as is agreeable to Law and Justice and the Course of Parliaments Resolved That the said Sir William Scroggs be Impeached upon the said Articles The Humble Petition of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common-Council Assembled on the Thirteenth of January 1680. To the King 's most Excellent Majesty for the Sitting of this present Parliament Prorogu'd to the Twentieth Instant Together with the Resolutions Orders and Debates of the said Court Commune Concil ' tent ' in Camera Guildhall Civitatis London Die Jovis decimo tertio die Januarii Anno Domini 1680. Annoque Regni Domini nostri Carol ' Secundi nunc Regis Angl ' c. Tricesimo secundo coram Patient ' Ward Mil ' Major ' Civitatis London Thoma Aleyn Mil ' Bar ' Johanne Frederick Mil ' Johanne Lawrence Mil ' Georgio Waterman Mil ' Josepho Sheldon Mil ' Jacobo Edwards Mil ' Roberto Clayton Mil ' Aldermannis Georgio Treby Ar ' Recordatore dictae Civit ' Johanne Moore Mil ' Willielmo Pritchard Mil ' Henrico Tulse Mil ' Jacobo Smith Mil ' Roberto Jeffery Mil Johanne Shorter Mil ' Thoma Gould Mil ' Willielmo Rawsterne Mil ' Thoma Beckford Mil ' Johanne Chapman Mil ' Simone Lewis Mil ' Thoma Pilkington Ar ' Ald'ris Henrico Cornish Ar ' Ald'ro ac unum vicecom ' dictae Civitatis necnon Major ' parte Comminarior ' dictae Civitatis in Communi Concil ' tunc ibidem Assemblat ' THis Day the Members that serve for this City in Parliament having communicated unto this Court a Vote or Resolution of the Honourable House of Commons whereby that House was pleased to give Thanks unto this City for their manifest Loyalty to the King their Care Charge and Vigilance for the Preservation of his Majesty's Person and of the Protestant Religion This Court is greatly sensible of the Honour thereby given to this City and do declare That it is the fixt and uniform Resolution of this City to persevere in what they have done and to contribute their utmost Assistance for the Defence of the Protestant Religion His Majesty's Person and the Government Established It was now unanimously Agreed and Ordered by this Court That the Thanks of this Court be given to the Members that serve for this City in Parliament for their good Service done this City and their Faithfulness in discharging their Duties in that Honourable and great Assembly Upon a Petition now Presented by divers Citizens and Inhabitants of this City representing their Fears from the Designs of the Papists and their Adherents and praying this Court to acquaint his Majesty therewith and to desire That the Parliament may sit from the Day
Is he a wise man who if his house be falling by reason of too much weight upon the roof will lay more upon it rather than propt it up and take off some of the weight So they who take the Church to consist of Ceremonies must pardon me that I am not of their opinion since the word of God warrants no such thing and my reason tells me that they are too much interested in the cause to be fit judges for with them he is accounted a good Son of the Church who keeps a great stir about Ceremonies though he live never so ill a life and perhaps is drunk when he performs his Devotion but if a man seem to be indifferent as to Ceremonies and make them no more than indeed they be yet in Practice Conforms more than he that makes a great noise about them though he live never so godly a life and as near as he can to the rule of God's word yet he is a Fanatick and an enemy to the Church but God Almighty tells us he will have mercy and not Sacrifice Gentlemen They who accuse me for an enemy to the King and Church have left you out of the story but I hope I shall not forget you but remember on whose errand I am sent and as I have hitherto stuck to your interest I hope nothing will draw me aside from it and if I know my own heart I am perswaded that neither rewards threats hopes nor fears will prevail upon me I desire nothing but to promote God's glory and the interest of the King and people and if it shall please God to let me see the Protestant Religion and Government established I shall think I have lived long enough and I shall be willing at that instant to resign my breath Gentlemen I thought good to say this to you and I thank you for your patience and hope I shall so behave my self in your Service that I shall make it appear I am sensible of the honour you have done me I humbly thank you all An Account of the Proceedings at the Sessions for the City of Westminster against Thomas Whitfield Scrivener John Smallbones Woodmonger and William Laud Painter for Tearing a Petition prepared to be presented to the King's Majesty for the Sitting of the Parliament With an Account of the said Petition presented on the 13th instant and His Majesty's Gracious Answer IT being the undoubted Right of the Subjects of England Vide the Resolutions of the Law Cook Jurisdict of Courts 79. Hobart 220. Vel. Magna Chart. Exl. Spencer 51. Vide the Proclamations of K. Charles I. and warranted by the Law of the Land and the general Practice of all former Times in an humble manner to apply themselves to His Majesty in the Absence of Parliaments by Petition for the Redress of their Grievances and for the obtaining such things as they apprehend necessary or beneficial to the safety and well being of the Nation And it being their Duty to which they are bound by the expres words of the Oath of Allegiance * I do Swear from my Heart That I will hear Faith and true Allegiance to His Majesty His Heirs and Successors and Him and Them will Defend to the uttermost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against His or Their Persons Their Crown and Dignity And will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto His Majesty His Heirs and Successors all Treasons and Trayterous Conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them to represent to Him any danger which they apprehend Threatning His Royal Person or His Government divers Persons in and about the City of Westminster considering the too apparent and unspeakable Danger His Majesty and His Kingdoms are in from the Hellish Plots and Villainous Conspiracies of the Bloody Papists and their Adherents and conceiving no sufficient or at least so fit Remedy could be provided against it but by the Parliament by whom alone several Persons accused of these accursed Designs can be brought to Tryal did prepare and sign a Petition humbly representing to His Majesty the imminent danger His Royal Person the Protestant Religion and the Government of this Nation were in from that most damnable and hellish Popish Plot branched forth into several the most Horrid Villainies For which several of the principal Conspirators stand impeached by Parliament and thereby humbly praying that the Parliament might Sit upon the 26th of January to try the Offenders and to Redress the important Crievances no otherways to be redressed of which Thomas Whitfield John Smallbenes and William Laud Inhabitants in Westminster taking notice upon the 20th day of December last they sent to Mr. William Horsley who had signed and promoted the Petition and in whose custody it was to bring or send it to them for that they desired to sign it And thereupon Mr. Horsley attended them and producing the Petition in which many Persons had joyned he delivered it at their request to be by them read and signed but Mr. Whitfield immediately tore it in pieces and threw it towards the Fire and Smallbones catching it up said That he would not take 10 s. for the Names and then they declared that they sent for it for that very purpose and owned themselves all concerned in the design Upon Mr. Horsley's complaint hereof to a Justice of the Peace a Warrant was granted against them and they being taken thereupon after examination of the matter were bound to appear and answer it at the next quarter Sessions of the Peace for the City of Westminster and upon Friday the 9th of January instant the Sessions being holden and there being present several Justices of the Peace that are eminent Lawyers the matter was brought before them and the Grand Jury Indicted the said Whitfield Smallbones and Laud as followeth viz. The City Borough and Town of Westminster in the County of Middlesex THe Jurors for our Soveraign Lord the King upon their Oath do present that whereas the Subjects and Liege People of the Kings and Queens of this Realm of England by the Laws and Customs of the Realm have used and been accustomed to represent their Publick Grievances by Petition or by any other submissive way And that the 20th day of December in the one and Thirtieth Year of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord Charles the Second by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith c. at the Parish of St. Martin's in the Fields within the Liberty of the Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter of the City Borough and Town of Westminster in the County of Middlesex a Petition written in paper was prepared and Subscribed with the hands of divers the said King's Subjects and Liege People to the Jury unknown and to our said Soveraign Lord King Charles the Second Directed and to our said Soveraign Lord the
King to be Presented and Delivered by which Petition it was shown that whereas there had been and was a most damnable Plot against the Royal Person of our said Soveraign Lord the King the Protestant Religion and well Established Government of this Realm for which Plot several of the Principal Conspirators were impeached by Parliament and whereby it was humbly prayed that the Parliament which was prorogued to the 26th day of January next ensuing in the said Year might then sit to Try the Offenders and to redress the pressing Grievances not otherwise to be Redressed And that Thomas Whitfield late of the said Parish of St. Martin's in the Fields in the Liberty aforesaid and the County aforesaid Yeoman John Smallbones late of the said Parish within the Liberty aforesaid in the County aforesaid Woodmonger and William Laud late of the Parish aforesaid in the County aforesaid Yeoman being persons ill-affected and Contriving Devising and Intending as much as in them lay to hinder the sitting of the said Parliament as was prayed by the said Petition and also to hinder the Trial of the said Offenders and Redressing the said Grievances the said 20th day of December in the said one and Thirtieth Year of the Reign of our said Soveraign Lord the King as Rioters and Disturbers of the Peace of our Soveraign â—ord the King for the Disturbing of the Peace of our said Soveraign Lord the King with Force and Arms at the said Parish within the Liberty aforesaid in the County aforesaid Unlawfully and Riotously did Assemble themselves and being so then and there assembled with Force and Arms then and there Unlawfully Riotously and Injuriously the said Petition being delivered by one William Horsley to them the said Thomas Whitfield John Smallbones and William Laud at their Request and for the subscribing their Names thereunto if they should think fit did Tear in pieces in contempt of our said Sovereign Lord the King and of his Laws to the evil Example of all others in the like Cases offending and against the Peace of our said Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity The Names of the Grand-Jury that found the Bill are these William Jacob Thomas Trevor Erasmus Browne Henry Dugley Richard Streete John Henly John Weston Martin Frogg John Pierce Robert Pinke Nathanael Wilkinson Edward Whitefoot John Gentle Thomas Harris William Fortune Roger Higdon James Harrold Cornelius Rickfield ☞ George Wright Apothecary ☞ Walter Wright Apothecary ☞ Adam Langley Apothecary Upon Wednesday the 7th of this instant January many Gentlemen and eminent Citizens who had been concerned for managing the Petition for the Sitting of the Parliament upon the 26th instant met together and agreed upon the method of finishing the same and of nominating fit Persons for the Presenting it to His Majesty which being accordingly done these Gentlemen following viz. Sir Gilbert Gerrard Baronet Son-in-Law to the late Bishop of Durham Francis Charlton Esq John Ellis Esq John Smith Esq Johnson of Stepney Esq Ellis Crispe Esq Anthony Selby Esq Henry Ashurst Esq Tho. Smith Esq Gentlemen of good Worth and Estates and several of whom have been eminent Sufferers for His Majesty did this 13th of January attend His Majesty with it at Whitehall when being introduced to His Royal Presence Sir Gilbert Gerrard kneeling presented this Petition To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of Your Majesty's most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects Inhabitants in and about the City of London whose Names are here-under subscribed Sheweth THat whereas there has been and still is a most Damnable and Hellish Popish Plot branched forth into the most Horrid Villianies against Your Majesty's most Sacred Person the Protestant Religion and the well Established Government of this Your Realm for which several of the principal Conspirators stand now impeached by Parliament Therefore in such a time when Your Majesty's Royal person as also the Protestant Religion and the Government of this Nation are thus in most imminent Danger We Your Majesty's most Dutiful and Obebient Subjects in the deepest sense of our Duty and Allegiance to Your Majesty Do most humbly and earnestly pray That the Parliament which is prorogued until the 26th day of January may then sit to Try the Offenders and to redress all our most important Grievances no otherwise to be redressed And Your Petitioners shall ever pray for Your Majesty's long and prosperous Reign 〈◊〉 expressed himself to this effect Sir I have a Petition from many thousands of your Majesty's Dutiful and Loyal Subjects in and about Your City of London which I 〈…〉 in their Names and desire Your Majesty would be pleased to read it To which His Majesty gave this Gracious answer I know the substance of it already I am Head of the Government and will take care of it and then received the Petition it being a great Roll of above 100 Yards in length and carried it away in His Hand The Judgment and Decree of the University of Oxford pass'd in their Convocation July 21. 1683. against certain Pernicious Books and Damnable Doctrines destructive to the Sacred Persons of Princes their State and Government and of all Human Society Published by Command ALtho' the barbarous Assassination lately enterprized against the person of his Sacred Majesty and his Royal Brother engage all our thoughts to reflect with utmost detestation and abhorrence of that execrable Villainy hateful to God and Man and pay our due acknowledgements to the Divine Providence which by extraordinary methods brought it to pass that the breath of our Nostrils the anointed of the Lord is not taken in the pit which was prepared for him and that under his shadow we continue to live and enjoy the Blessings of his Government Yet notwithstanding we find it to be a necessary duty at this time to search into and lay open those impious Doctrines which having of late been studiously disseminated gave rise and growth to those nefarious attempts and pass upon them our solemn publick Censure and Decree of Condemnation Therefore to the honour of the holy and undivided Trinity the preservation of Catholick truth in the Church and that the King's Majesty may be secur'd from the attempts of open and bloudy enemies and the machinations of Traiterous Hereticks and Schismaticks We the Vice Chancellor Doctors Proctors and Masters Regent and not Regent met in Convocation in the accustom'd manner time and place on Saturday the 21 of July in the Year 1683. concerning certain Propositions contained in divers Books and Writings published in English and also in the Latin tongue repugnant to the holy Scriptures Decrees of Councils Writings of the Fathers the Faith and Profession of the Primitive Church and also destructive of the Kingly Government the safety of his Majesty's Person the Publick Peace the Laws of Nature and bonds of humane Society By our Unanimous assent and consent have Decreed and Determin'd in manner and form following Proposition 1. All Civil Authority is derived originally from
they that make Leasings to his Grace of his Lords Barons and Leiges Act 134. Par. 8. James 6. May 22. 1584. Anent Slanderers of the King his Progenitors Estate and Realm FOrasmuch as it is understood to our Soveraign Lord and his three Estates assembled in this present Parliament what great harm and inconveniency has fallen in this Realm chiefly since the beginning of the Civil troubles occurred in the time of his Highness minority through the wicked and licentious publick and private speeches and untrue calumnies of divers of his Subjects to the disdain contempt and reproach of His Majesty his Council and proceedings and to the dishonour and prejudice of his Highness his Parents Progenitors and Estate stirring up his Highness's Subjects thereby to misliking sedition unquietness and to cast off their due obedience to His Majesty to their evident peril tinsil and destruction his Highness continuing always in love and clemency toward all his good Subjects and most willing to seek the safety and preservation of them all which wilfully needlessly and upon plain malice after his Highness's mercy and pardon oft times afore granted has procured themselves by their treasonable deeds to be cut off as corrupt Members of this Commonwealth Therefore it is statute and ordained by our Soveraign Lord and his three Estates in this present Parliament that none of his Subjects of whatsoever Function Degree or Quality in time coming shall presume or take upon hand privately or publickly in Sermons Declanations and familiar Conferences to utter any false slanderous or untrue Speeches to the disdain reproach and contempt of His Majesty his Council and proceedings or to the dishonour hurt or prejudice of his Highness his Parents and Progenitors or to meddle in the Affairs of his Highness and his Estate present by-gone and in time coming under the pains contained in the Acts of Parliament anent makers and tellers of Leasings certifying them that shall be tryed contraveeners thereof or that hear such slanderous Speeches and reports not the same with diligence the said pain shall be executed against them with all rigour in example of others Act 205. Par. 14 King James 6. June 8. 1594. Anent Leasing-makers and Authors of Slanders OUR Soveraign Lord with advice of his Estates in this present Parliament ratifies approves and for his Highness and Successors perpetually confirms the Act made by his Noble Progenitors King James the First of Worthy Memory against Leasing-makers the Act made by King James the Second entituled Against Leasing-makers and tellers of them the Act made by King James the Fifth entituled Of Leasing-makers and the Act made by his Highness's self with advice of his Estates in Parliament upon the 22d day of May 1584. entituled For the punishment of the Authors of Slanders and untrue Calumnies against the Kings Majesty his Council and proceedings to the dishonour and prejudice of his Highness his Parents Progenitors Crown and Estate as also the Act made in his Highness's Parliament holden at Linlithgow upon the 10th of December 1585. entituled Against the Authors of slanderous Speeches or Writs and statutes and ordains all the said Acts to be published of new and to be put in execution in time coming with this addition That whoever hears the said Leasings Calumnies or slanderous Speeches or Writs to be made and apprehends not the Authors thereof if it lies in his power and reveals not the same to his Highness or one of his Privy Council or to the Sheriff Steward or Bayliff of the Shire Stewards in Regality or Royalty or to the Provost or any of the Bayliffs within Burgh by whom the same may come to the knowledge of his Highness or his said Privy-Council where through the said Leasing makers and Authors of slanderous Speeches may be called tryed and punished according to the said Acts The hearer and not apprehender if it lye in his power and concealer and not revealer of the said Leasing makers and Authors of the said slanderous Specches or Writs shall incur the like pain and punishment as the principal Offender Act 107. Par. 7. King James 1. March 1. 1427. That none interpret the Kings Statutes wrongously ITem the King by deliverance of Council by manner of Statute forbids That no man interpret his Statutes otherwise than the Statutes bear and to the intent and effect that they were made for and as the maker of them understood and who so does in the contrary shall be punished at the Kings will Act 10. Par. 10. King James 6. Dec. 10. 1585. Authors of slanderous Speeches or Writs should be punished to the Death IT is statuted and ordained by our Soveraign Lord and three Estates that all his Highness's Subjects content themselves in quietness and dutiful obedience to his Highness and his Authority and that none of them presume or take upon hand publickly to declaim or privately to speak or write any purpose of reproach or slander of His Majesties Person Estate or Government or to deprave his Laws and Acts of Parliament or misconstrue his proceedings whereby any misliking may be moved betwixt his Highness and his Nobility and loving Subjects in time coming under the pain of Death certifying them that do in the contrary they shall be reputed as seditious and wicked Instruments enemies to his Highness and the Commonwealth of this Realm and the said pain of Death shall be executed upon them with all rigour in example of others Act for preservation of His Majesties Person Authority and Government May 1662. And further it is by His Majesty and Estates of Parliament declared statuted and enacted That if any person or persons shall by writing printing praying preaching libelling remonstrating or by any malicious or advised speaking express publish or declare any words or sentences to stir up the people to the hatred or dislike of His Majesties Royal Prerogative and Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical or of the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops as it is now settled by Law That every such person or persons so offending and being legally Convicted thereof are hereby declared incapable to enjoy or exercise any place or employment Civil Ecclesiastick or Military within this Church and Kingdom and shall be liable to such further pains as are due by the Law in such Cases Act 130. Par. 8. James 6. May 22. 1584. Anent the Authority of the three Estates of Parliament THE Kings Majesty considering the Honour and the Authority of his Supreme Court of Parliament continued past all memory of man unto their days as constitute upon the free Votes of the three Estates of this ancient Kingdom by whom the same under God has ever been upholden Rebellious and Traiterous Subjects punished the Good and Faithful preserved and maintained and the Laws and Acts of Parliament by which all men are governed made and established And finding the Power Dignity and Authority of the said Court of Parliament of late years called in some doubt at least some curiously travelling
to have been perverted from the Protestant to the Popish Religion whereby not only great Encouragement hath been given to the Popish Party to enter into and carry on most Devilish and Horrid Plots and Conspiracies for the Destruction of His Majesties Sacred Person and Government and for the Extirpation of the True Protestant Religon But also if the said Duke should succeed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm nothing is more manifest than that a Total Change of Religion within these Kingdoms would ensue For the Preservation whereof Be it Enacted by the King 's Most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That the said James Duke of York shall be and is by the Authority of this present Parliament Excluded and made for ever uncapable to Inherit Possess or Enjoy the Imperial Crown of this Realm and of the Kingdoms of Ireland and the Dominions and Territories to them or either of them belonging or to have exercise or enjoy any Dominion Power Jurisdiction or Authority in the same Kingdoms Dominions or any of them And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if the said James Duke of York shall at any time hereafter challenge claim or attempt to possess or enjoy or shall take upon him to use or exercise any Dominion Power or Authority or Jurisdiction within the said Kingdoms or Dominions or any of them as King or Chief Magistrate of the same That then he the said James Duke of York for every such Offence shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures as in case of High Treason And further That if any Person or Persons whatever shall assist or maintain abett or willingly adhere unto the said James Duke of York in such challenge claim or attempt or shall of themselves attempt or endeavour to put or bring the said James Duke of York into the Possession or Exercise of any Regal Power Jurisdiction or Authority within the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid or shall by Writing or Preaching advisedly publish maintain or declare That he hath any Right Title or Authority to the Office of King or Chief Magistrate of the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid that then every such Person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and that he suffer and undergo the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures aforesaid And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That he the said James Duke of York shall not at any time from and after the Fifth of November 1680 return or come into or within any of the Kingdoms or Dominions aforesaid And then he the said James Duke of York shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures as in case of High Treason And further That if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall be aiding or assisting unto such Return of the said James Duke of York That then every such Person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer as in Cases of High Treason And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That he the said James Duke of York or any other Person being guilty of any of the Treasons aforesaid shall not be capable of or receive Benefit by any Pardon otherwise than by Act of Parliament wherein they shall be particularly named and that no Nole prosequi or Order for stay of Proceedings shall be received or allowed in or upon any Indictment for any of the Offences mentioned in this Act. And be it further Enacted and Declared And it is hereby Enacted and Declared That it shall and may be lawful to and for any Magistrates Officers and other Subjects whatsoever of these Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid and they are hereby enjoyned and required to apprehend and secure the said James Duke of York and every other Person offending in any of the Premisses and with him or them in case of Resistance to fight and him or them by Force to subdue For all which Actings and for so doing they are and shall be by virtue of this Act saved harmless and indemnified Provided and it is hereby Declared That nothing in this Act contained shall be construed deemed or adjudged to disenable any other Person from inheriting and enjoying the Imperial Crown of the Realms and Dominions aforesaid other than the said James Duke of York But that in case the said James Duke of York should survive his now Majesty and the Heirs of his Majesty's Body The said Imperial Crown shall descend to and be enjoyed by such Person or Person successarily during the Life of the said James Duke of York as should have inherited and enjoyed the same in case the said James Duke of York were naturally dead any thing contained in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That during the Life of the said James Duke of York this Act shall be given in charge at every Assizes and General Sessions of the Peace within the Kingdoms Dominions and Territories aforesaid and also shall be openly Read in every Cathedral Church and Parish Church and Chappels within the aforesaid Kingdoms Dominions and Territories by the several respective Parsons Vicars Curates and Readers thereof who are hereby required immediately after Divine Service in the Fore-noon to read the same twice in every year that is to say on the 25th of December and upon Easter-day during the Life of the said James Duke of York This BILL was Read Three Times and Passed and sent up to the Lords for their Concurrence Some particular Matters of Fact relating to the Administration of Affairs in Scotland under the Duke of LAUDERDALE Humbly offered to Your Majesty's Consideration in Obedience to Your Royal Commands 1. THE Duke of Lauderdale did grosly misrepresent to your Majesty the Condition of the Western Countries as if they had been in a state of Rebellion though there had never been any opposition made to your Majesty's Authority nor any Resistance offered to your Forces nor to the execution of the Laws But he purposing to abuse your Majesty that so he might carry on his sinistrous Designs by your Authority advised your Majesty to raise an Army against your peaceable Subjects at least did frame a Letter which he sent to your Majesty to be signed by your Royal Hand to that effect which being sent down to your Council Orders was thereupon given out for raising an Army of Eight or Nine thousand men the greatest part whereof were Highblanders and notwithstanding that to avert threatning the Nobility and Gentry of that Country did send to Edenburgh and for the security of the Peace did offer to engage that whatsoever should be sent to put the Laws in execution should meet with no affront and that they would become Hostages for their safety yet
to which it stands Prorogued until they have sufficiently provided against Popery and Arbitrary Power This Court after some Debate and Consideration had thereupon did return the Petitioners Thanks for their Care and good Intention herein And did thereupon nominate and appoint Sir John Lawrence Sir Robert Clayton Knights and Aldermen Mr. Recorder Sir Thomas Player Kt. Mr. John Du Bois John Ellis Esq and Mr. Michael Godfrey Commoners to withdraw and immediately to prepare a Petition to his Majesty upon the Subject matter of the said Petition who accordingly withdrawing after some time returned again to this Court and then presented the Draught of such a Petition to his Majesty The Tenor whereof followeth Viz. To the King 's most Excellent Majesty c. After reading whereof It is agreed and ordered by this Court Nemine Contradicente That the said Petition shall be presented to his Majesty this Evening or as soon as conveniently may be And the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor is desired to present the same accompanied with Sir John Lawrence Sir Joseph Sheldon Sir James Edwards Knights and Aldermen Mr. Recorder Deputy Hawes Deputy Daâ—â—l John Nichols John Ellis Esquires Mr. Godfrey and Capt. Griffith Commoners who are now nominated and appointed to attend upon his Lordship at the Presenting thereof Ward Mayor Commune Concil ' tent ' 13 Januarii 1680. Annoque Regis Car. II. 32. IT is Agreed and Ordered by this Court Nemine Contradicente That the Humble Petition to His Majesty from this Court now read and agreed upon shall be presented to His Majesty this Evening or as soon as conveniently may be And the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor is desired to Present the same accompanied with Sir John Lawrence Sir Joseph Sheldon and Sir James Edwards Knights and Aldermen Mr. Recorder Deputy Hawes Deputy Daniel John Nichols John Ellis Esquires Mr. Godfrey and Capt. Griffith Commoners who are now nominated and appointed to attend upon his Lordship at the Presenting thereof Wagstaffe To the KING 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common-Council Assembled Most Humbly sheweth THat Your Majesty's great Council in Parliament having in their late Session in pursuance of Your Majesty's Direction entred upon a strict and impartial Inquiry into the horrid and execrable Popish Plot which hath been for several years last past and still is carried on for destruction of Your Majesty's Sacred Person and Government and extirpation of the Protestant Religion and the utter Ruine of Your Majesty's Protestant Subjects and having so far proceeded therein as justly to attaint upon full Evidence one of the five Lords impeached for the same and were in further Prosecution of the remaining Four Lords and other Conspirators therein And as well the Lords Spiritual and Temporal as the Commons in Your said Parliament assembled having Declared That they are fully satisfied that there now is and for divers years last past hath been a horrid and Treasonable Plot and Conspiracy contrived and carried on by those of the Pupish Religion in Ireland for Massacring the English and subverting the Protestant Religion and the Ancient established Government of that Kingdom And Your said Commons having Impeached the Earl of Tyrone in order to the bringing him to Justice for the same And having under Examination other Conspirators in the said Irish Plot. And Your said Commons having likewise impeached Sir William Scroggs Chief Justice of Your Majesty's Court of Kings Bench for Treason and other great Crimes and Misdemeanors in endeavouring to subvert the Laws of this Kingdom by his Arbitrary and Illegal proceedings And having voted Impeachments against several other Judges for the like Misdemeanors Your Petitioners considering the continual Hazards to which Your Sacred Life and the Protestant Religion and the Peace of this Kingdom are exposed while the Hopes of a Popish Successor gives Countenance and Encouragement to the Conspiratours in their wicked Designs And considering also the Disquiet and Dreadful Apprehensions of Your good Subjects by reason of the Miseries and Mischiefs which threaten them on all parts as well from Foreign Powers as from the Conspiracies within Your several Kingdoms against which no sufficient Remedy can be provided but by Your Majesty and Your Parliament were extreamly surprized at the late Prorogation whereby the Prosecution of the Publick Justice of the Kingdom and the making the Provisions necessary for the Preservation of Your Majesty and Your Protestant Subjects hath received an interruption And they are the more affected herewith by reason of the Experience they have had of the great Progress which the emboldned Conspirators have formerly made in their Designs during the late frequent Recesses of Parliament But that which supports them against Dispair is the Hopes they derive from Your Majesty's Goodness That Your Intention was and does continue by this Prorogation to make way for Your better Concurrence with the Counsels of Your Parliament And Your Petitioners humbly hope That Your Majesty will not take Offence that your Subjects are thus Zealous and even impatient of the least Delay of the long hoped for Security whilst they see your precious Life invaded the true Religion undermined their Families and innocent Posterity likely to be subjected to Blood Confusion and Ruine and all these Dangers encreased by reason of the late Endeavours of Your Majesty and Your Parliament which have added Provocation to the Conspirators but have had little or no Effect towards securing against them And they trust Your Majesty will graciously accept this Discovery and Desire of their Loyal Hearts to preserve Your Majesty and whatever else is dear to them and to strengthen Your Majesty against all Popish and Pernicious Counsels which any ill affected Persons may persume to offer They do therefore most humbly Pray That Your Majesty will be graciously pleased as the only means to quiet the Minds and extinguish the Fears of Your Protestant People and prevent the imminent Dangers which threaten Your Majesty's Kingdoms and particularly this Your Great City which hath already so deeply suffered for the same to permit Your said Parliament to Sit from the Day to which they are Prorogued untill by their Counsels and Endeavours those good Remedies shall be provided and those just Ends attained upon which the Safety of Your Majesty's Person the preservation of the Protestant Religion the Peace and Settlement of Your Kingdoms and the Welfare of this Your Ancient City do so absolutely depend For the pursuing and obtaining of which good Effects Your Petitioners unanimously do offer their Lives and Estates And shall ever Pray c. Vox Patriae Or the Resentments and Indignation of the Free-born Subjects of England against Popery Arbitrary Government the Duke of York or any Popish Successor being a true Collection of the Petitions and Addresses lately made from divers Counties Cities and Boroughs of this Realm to their respective Representatives chosen to serve in the Parliament
those vast Lands Jurisdictions and Superiorities justly forfaulted to His Majesty by the Crimes of your deceased Father preferring your Family to those who had served His Majesty against it in the late Rebellion but also pardoned and remitted to you the Crimes of Leasing-making and misconstruing His Majesties and his Parliaments proceedings against the very Laws above-written whereof you were found guilty and condemned to die therefore by the High Court of Parliament the 25th of August 1662. and raised you to the Title and Dignity of an Earl and being a Member of all His Majesties Judicatures Notwithstanding of all these and many other favours you the said Archibald Earl of Argyle being put by the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council to take the Test appointed by the Act of the last Parliament to be taken by all persons in publick Trust you instead of taking the said Test and swearing the same in the plain genuine sense and meaning of the words without any equivocation mental reservation or evasion whatsoever you did declare against and defame the said Act and having to the end you might corrupt others by your pernicious sense drawn the same in a Libel of which Libel you dispersed and gave abroad Copies whereby ill impressions were given of the King and Parliaments proceedings at a time especially when His Majesties Subjects were expecting what submission should be given to the said Test and being desired the next day to take the same as one of the Commissioners of His Majesties Treasury you did give into the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council and owned twice in plain judgment before them the said defamatory Libel against the said Test and Act of Parliament declaring That you had considered the said Test and was desirous to give obedience as far as you could whereby you clearly insinuated that you was not able to give full obedience In the second Article of which Libel you declare That you were confident the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths thereby to abuse the people with a belief that the Parliament had been so impious as really and actually to have imposed contradictory Oaths and so ridiculous as to have made an Act of Parliament which should be most deliberate of all humane actions quite contrary to their own intentions after which you subsumed contrary to the nature of all Oaths and to the Acts of Parliament above cited that every man must explain it for himself and take it in his own sense by which not only that excellent Law and the Oath therein specified which is intended to be a Fence to the Government both of Church and State but all other Oaths and Laws shall be rendered altogether useless to the Government If every man take the Oaths imposed by Law in his own sense then the Oath imposed is to no purpose for the Legislator cannot be sure that the Oath imposed by him will bind the takers according to the design and intent for which he appointed it and the Legislative Power is taken from the Imposers and settled in the taker of the Oath and so he is allowed to be the Legislator which is not only an open and violent depraving of His Majesties Laws and Acts of Parliament but is likewise a settling of the Legislative Power on private Subjects who are to take such Oaths In the third Article of that Paper you declare That you take the Test in so far only as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion by which you maliciously intimate to the people That the said Oath is inconsistent with it self and with the Protestant Religion which is not only a down right depraving of the said Act of Parliament but is likewise a misconstruing of His Majesties and the Parliaments proceedings and misrepresenting them to the people in the highest degree and in the tenderest points they can be concerned and implying that the King and Parliament have done things inconsistent with the Protestant Religion for securing of which that Test was particularly intended In the Fourth Article you do expresly declare that you mean not by taking the said Test to bind up your self from wishing and endeavouring any alteration in a lawful way that you shall think fit for advancing of Church and State whereby also it was designed by the said Act of Parliament and Oath That no man should make any alteration in the Government of Church and State as it is now established and that it is the Duty of all good Subjects in humble and quiet manner to obey the present Government Yet you not only declare your self but by your example you invite others to think themselves loosed from that Obligation and that it is free for them to make any alteration in either as they shall think fit concluding your whole Paper with these words And this I understand as a part of my Oath which is a treasonable invasion upon the Royal Legislative Power as if it were lawful for you to make to your self an Act of Parliament since he who can make any part of an Act may make the whole the Power and Authority in both being the same Of the which Crimes above mentioned you the said Archibald Earl of Argyle are Actor Art and Part which being found by the Assize you ought to be punished with the pains of Death fortâ—ulture and escheat of Lands and Goods to the terror of others to commit the like hereafter An Abstract of the several Acts of Parliament upon which the Indictment against the Earl of Argyle was grounded Concerning raisers of Rumours betwixt the King and his people Chap. 20.1 Statutes of King Robert 1. IT is defended and forbidden That no man be a Conspirator or Inventer of Narrations or Rumours by the which occasion of discord may arise betwixt the King and his people And if any such man shall be found and attainted thereof incontinent be shall be taken and put in Prison and there shall be surely keeped up ay and while the King declare his will anent him Act 43. of Par. 2. King James 1. March 11. 1424. Leasing-makers forfault Life and Goods ITem It is ordained by the King and whole Parliament that all Leasingmakers and tellers of them which may engender discord betwixt the King and his people wherever they may be gotten shall be challenged by them that power has and ryne Lâ—â—e and Goods to the King Act 83. Par. 6. James 5. Dec. 10. 1540. Of Leasing-makers ITem Touching the Article of Leasing-makers to the Kings Grace of his Barons great men and Leiges and for punishment to be put to them therefore the Kings Grace with advice of his three Estates ratifies and approves the Acts and Statutes made thereupon before and ordains the same to be put in execution in all points and also Statutes and ordains That if any manner of person makes any evil Information of his Highness to his Barons and Leiges that they shall be punished in such manner and by the same punishment as
That Parliaments are part of the frame of the Common-Law which is laid in the Law and Light of Nature right Reason and Scripture 2. That according to this Moral Law of Equity and Righteousness Parliaments ought frequently to meet for the common peace safety and benefit of the People and support of the Government 3. That Parliaments have been all along esteemed an essential part of the Government as being the most ancient honourable and Sovereign Court in the Nation who are frequently and perpetually to sit for the making and abolishing Laws Redressing of Grievances and see to the due administration of Justice 4. That as to the place of Meeting it was to be at London the Capital City the Eye and Heart of the Nation as being not only the Regal Seat but the principal place of Judicature and residence of the chief Officers and Courts of Justice where also the Records are kept as well as the principal place of Commerce and Concourse in the Nation and to which the People may have the best recourse and where they may find the best accommodation 5. The Antiquity of Parliaments in this Nation which have been so ancient that no Record can give any account of their Beginning my Lord Coke thus tracing them from the Britains through the Saxons Danes and Normans to our days So that not to suffer Parliaments to sit to answer the great ends for which they were Instituted is expresly contrary to the Common Law and so consequently of the Law of God as well as the Law of Nature and thereby Violence is offered to the Government it self and Infringement of the Peoples fundamental Rights and Liberties Secondly What we find hereof in the Statute-Law The Statute Laws are Acts of Parliament which are or ought to be only Declaratory of the Common Law which as you have heard is founded upon right Reason and Scripture for we are told that if any thing is Enacted contrary thereto it is void and null As Coke Inst l. 2. c 29. f. 15. Finch p. 3. 28 H. 8. c. 27. Doct. and Stud. The first of these Statures which require the frequent Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments agreeable to the Common Law we find to be in the time of Ed. 3. viz. 4 Ed. 3. ch 14. In these words ' Item It is accorded that a Pariament shall be holden every year once or more often if need be The next is in the 36 of the same K. Ed. 3. c. 10. viz. Item For the maintenance of the said Articles and Statutes and Redressing of divers Mischiefs and Grievances which dayly happen a Parliament shall be holden every year as at another time was ordained by a Statute viz. the aforementioned in his 4th year And agreeable hereto are those Statutes upon the Rolls viz. 5 Ed. 2. 1 R. 2. No. 95. By which Statutes it appeareth That Parliaments ought annually to meet to support the Government and to redress the Grievances which may happen in the Interval of Parliaments That being the great End proposed in their said Meetings Now for Parliaments to meet Annually and not suffered to sit to Answer the Ends but to be Prorogued or Dissolved before they have finished their Work would be nothing but a deluding the Law and a striking at the foundation of the Government it self and rendering Parliaments altogether useless for it would be all one to have No Parliaments at all as to have them turn'd off by the Prince before they have done that that they were called and intrusted to do For by the same Rule whereby they may be so turn'd off one Session they may be three Sessions and so to threescore to the breaking of the Government and introducing Arbitrary Power To prevent such intollerable Mischiefs and Inconveniencies are such good Laws as these made in this King's time and which were so Sacredly observed in after times That it was a Custom especially in the Reigns of H. 4. H 5. H. 6. to have a Proclamation made in Westminster-Hall before the end of every Session * An honest and a necessary Proclamation to be made every Parliament That all those who had any matter to present to the Parliament should bring it in before such a day for otherwise the Parliament at that day should Determine Whereby it appears the People were not to be eluded nor disappointed by surprizing Prorogations and Dissolutions to frustrate and make void the great ends of Parliaments And to this purpose saith a late Learned Author That if there was no Statute or any thing upon record extant concerning the Parliaments sitting to redress grievances yet that I must believe that it is so by the fundamental Law of the Government which must be lame and imperfect without it For otherwise the Prince and his Ministers may do what they please and their Wills may be their Laws Therefore it is provided for in the very Essence and Constitution of the Government it self and this saith our Author we may call the Common-Law which is of as much value if not more than any Statute and of which all our good Acts of Parliament and Magna-Charta it self is but Delaratory so that though the King is intrusted with the formal part of summoning and pronouncing the Dissolution of Parliaments which is done by Writ yet the Laws which oblige him as well as us have determined how and when he shall do it which is enough to shew that the King's share in the Soveraignty that is in the Parliament is cut out to him by Law and not left at his disposal The next Statute we shall mention to inforce this fundamental Right and Privilege 25 Ed. 3. c. 23. Statute of Provisors is the 25th Ed. 3. ch 23. called the Statute of Provisors which was made to prevent and cut off the Incroachments of the Bishops of Rome whose Usurpations in disposing of Benefices occasioned intollerable Grievances wherein in the Preamble of the said Statute it is expressed as followeth Whereupon the Commons have prayed our said Soveraign Lord the King that sith the Right of the Crown of England and the Law of the said Realm is such that upon the Mischiefs and Damage which happeneth to his Realm be ought and is bounden of the accord of his said People in his Parliament thereof to make Remedy and Law in avoiding the Mischiefs and Damage which thereof cometh That it may please him thereupon to provide Remedy Our Soveraign Lord the King seeing the Mischiefs and Damage before-named and having regard to the said Statute made in the time of his said Grand-Father and to the Causes contained in the same which Statute holdeth always his force and was never defeated or annulled in any point and by so much is bound by his Oath to do the same to be kept as the Law of this Realm tho that by Sufferance and Negligence it hath since been attempted to the contrary And also having regard to the grievous Complainte made to him by his
of the Peace and Vnity of this Realm 3. And that such Person or Persons so to be Named Assigned Authorised and Appointed by Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors after the said Letters Patents to him or them made and delivered as is aforesaid shall have full Power and Authority by Vertue of this Act and of the said Letters Patents under Your Highness Your Heirs and Successors to exercise use and execute all the premisses according to the Tenor and Effect of the said Letters Patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding So that I take it that all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was in the Crown by the Common Law of England and declared to be so by the said Act of 1 Eliz. 1. and by that Act a Power given to the Crown to assign Commissioners to exercise this Jurisdiction which was accordingly done by Queen Elizabeth and a High Commission Court was by her erected which sate and held Plea of all Causes Spiritual and Ecclesiastical during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth King James the First and King Charles the First till the 17th Year of his Reign Which leads me to consider the Statute of 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. which Act recites the Title of 1 Eliz. ca. 1. and Sect. 18. of the same Act and recites further Section 2. That whereas by colour of some Words in the aforesaid Branch of the said Act whereby Commissioners are authorised to execute their Commission according to the Tenor and Effect of the Kings Letters Patents and by Letters Patents grounded thereupon the said Commissioners have to the great and insufferable Wrong and Oppression of the Kings Subjects used to Fine and Imprison them and to exercise other Authority not belonging to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction restored by that Act and divers other great Mischiefs and Inconveniences have also ensued to the Kings Subjects by occasion of the said Branch and Commissions issued thereupon and the Executions thereof Therefore for the repressing and preventing of the aforesaid Abuses Mischiefs and Inconveniences in time to come by Sect. 3. the said Clause in the said Act 1 Eliz. 1. is Repealed with a Non obstante to the said Act in these Words Be it Enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty and the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That the aforesaid Branch Clause Article or Sentence contained in the said Act and every Word Matter and thing contained in that Branch Clause Article or Sentence shall from henceforth be Repealed Annulled Revoked Annihilated and utterly made Void for ever any thing in the said Act to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And in Sect. 5. of the same Act it is Enacted That from and after the first of August in the said Act mentioned all such Commissions shall be void in these Words And be it further Enacted That from and after the said first Day of August no new Court shall be erected ordained or appointed within this Realm of England or Dominion of Wales which shall or may have the like Power Jurisdiction or Authority as the said High Commission Court now hath or pretendeth to have but that all and every such Letters Patents Commissions and Grants made or to be made by his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and all Powers and Authorities granted or pretended or mentioned to be granted thereby And all Acts Sentences and Decrees to be made by virtue or Colour thereof shall be utterly void and of none effect By which Act then the Power of Exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Commissioners under the Broad-Seal is so taken away that it provides no such Power shall ever for the future be Delegated by the Crown to any Person or Persons whatsoever Let us then in the last place consider Whether the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12 hath restored this Power or not And for this I take it that it is not restored by the said Act or any Clause in it and to make this evident I shall first set down the whole Act and then consider it in the several Branches of it that relate to this Matter The Act is Entituled An Act for Explanation of a Clause contained in an Act of Parliament made in the 17th Year of the Late King Charles Entituled An Act for Repeal of a Branch of Statute in Primo Elizabethae câ—ncerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical The Act it self runs thus Whereas in an Act of Parliament made in the Seventeenth Year of the Late King Charles Intituled An Act for Repeal of a Branch of a Stature primo Elizabethae concerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical It is amongst other things Enacted that no Arch-bishop Bisâ—â—p or Vicar-General nor any Chancellor nor Commissary of any Arch-Bishop Bishop or Vicar-General nor any Ordinary whatsoever nor any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or Minister of Justice nor any other Person or Persons whatsoever exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction by any Grant Lisence or Commission of the Kings Majesty His Heirs or Successors or by any Power or Authority derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or otherwise shall from and after the First Day of August which then should be in the Year of our Lord God 1641. Award Impose or Inflict any Pain Penalty Fine Amercement Imprisonment or other Corporal Punishment upon any of the Kings Subjects for any Contempt Misdemeanor Crime Offence Matter or Thing whatsoever belonging to Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Cognizance or Jurisdiction 2. Whereupon some Doubt hath been made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and proceeding in Causes Ecclesiastital were taken away whereby the ordinary Course of Justice in Causes Ecclesiastical hath been obstructed 3. Be it therefore Declared and Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority thereof That neither the said Act nor any thing therein contained doth or shall take away any ordinary Power or Authority from any of the said Arch-Bishops Bishops or any other Person or Persons named as aforesaid but that they and every of them exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction may proceed determine Sentence execute and exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and all Censures and Coertions appertaining and belonging to the same before any making of the Act before recited in all Causes and Matters belonging to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction according to the Kings Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws used and practised in this Realm in as ample Manner and Form as they did and might lawfully have done before making of the said Act. Sect. 2. And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the afore recited Act of Decimo Septimo Car. and all the Matters and Clauses therein contained excepting what concerns the High Commission Court or the new Erection of some such like Court by Commission shall be and is thereby repealed to dlintents and purposes whatsoever
owe Arbitraty Allegiance Allegiance is more in some Places and less in others but no Man can owe so much Duty to his Prince as not to have a Salvo for God and his Life and here we can owe none that is against our Laws and the Publick Good for that would destroy the Government Our Allegiance therefore must be bounded by our Laws and not by the King's Word or Will No Man can swear to obey the King's Word or Will simply but according to Law It would be Sin to tye our selves to think or speak or do what he would have us at large Our Allegiance therefore must be such as will consist with the Frame of our Government and that must be such as is couched in the Body of our Laws Other Allegiance there can be none but what is wrapt up in Courtesies and Formalities For it seems the King as well as the People is under the Law in some Sense under the direction of it though not under the constraint and therefore at his Coronation he does a kind of Fealty to the Laws and Government and swears Allegiance to them as to a Supream Lord. The Oath is not only Will you grant the Laws but will you grant and keep the Laws and Customs of England and the Answer is I grant and promise to keep them It is certain therefore no Allegiance to the King can be against Law to which he himself owes Allegiance The Case being thus far clear That the Allegiance sworn to is no other but our Legal Duty it does not hinder but that we may resist illegal Force When the King of the Scots swore allegiance to our King it did not deprive him of a just defence of his just Right by taking up arms if he were opprest And the King of England when he swore allegiance to the King of France made no scruple to take up arms against his Liege Lord in defence of his just Rights And the Old Lawyers tell us That the very Villain might in case of Rape and Murther arm against his Lord and if the Law arm a Villain against his Lord Subjects are worse than Villains if they may not arm against their Soveraign Lord's illegal Forces in defence of their Laws Lives Estates and the publick good but what makes it most evident is the Clause in King Henry's Charter which says If the King invade those Rights it is Lawful for the Kingdom to rise against him and do him what injury they can as though they owed him no Allegiance The Words are these if my Author fail me not Licet omnibus de Regno nostro contra nos insurgere omnia agere quae gravamen noster respiciant ac si nobis in nullo tenerentur Much to the same purpose is in King John's Charter which I find thus quoted Et Illi Barones cum communa totius terrae distringent gravabunt Nos Modis omnibus quibus poterunt scilicet per captionem Castrorum terrarum possessionum etalis modis quibus potuerint donet fuerint emendatum secundum Arbitrium eorum salva persona nostra Reginae nostrae Liberorum nostrorum Much may be said of this Nature about the Old Allegiance which was all couched in Homage and Fealty but this is enough to show that true Allegiance does not tye us from resisting illegal Force and Intolerable Incroachments upon our just Rights Obj. 10. But such Resistance would be against the Declaration which says It is not Lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King c. Answ The Latitude of the word Lawful causes the Scruple which at first View seems to tell us That it is sinful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up arms against the King c. But it is no good consequence to say That it is sinful because it is unlawful unless the Discourse be restrained to the Laws of God I must confess it is politically unlawful for Subjects in any Case or for any Cause whatever to take up arms against the King and those Commission'd by him because such a taking up arms here can have no political authority But it is morally lawful in all limited Governments to resist that Force that wants political power The regal power is irresistable in all Persons from the King to the petty Constable but it does not hinder but that all these Persons may be resisted when they do what they have no political power to They that have a limited power and a prescribed Duty may either act against or beyond their Commission and when they so do they may be resisted For such acts have no political power in them though the Persons have to other purposes If a Commission should be granted to a Company of Ruffians to plunder and massacre they might have something more of the King's Affections but no more of his authority than Private Robbers had and consequently might be resisted with equal Honesty None therefore can make this Declaration in its full Latitude but upon this presumption That the King and his Ministers keep perpetually within the Bounds of the Law otherwise they declare the King has an arbitrary power which is against the Fundamental Laws of this Land and a kind of Treason against the State For if he may not be resisted in any Case he may be under some moral restraint but under no political restraint and consequently the political frame of the Government must be arbitrary The meaning therefore of this Declaration can be no other but that a Man can have no Civil power or authority in any Case to take up arms against the King c. But this does not debar any man of the Natural Right of Self-defence by private arms against Inauthoritative Force Obj. 11. To this some reply that seeing God hath placed the Governing though limited Power in the King's Hand no Man may by any Natural Right or Private Defence resist his illegal Force God s Power must not be resisted though abused Answ There is a great difference between the abuse of power and the want of power and therefore this argument either supposes the power greater than it is or concludes ill The King and Parliament have indeed an arbitrary power I do not say Infinite but as Extensive as the frame of government will bear and therefore if they make a very grievous Law though they ought not for they are under a moral restraint though no political neither the King nor any of his Ministers may be resisted in the due Execution of it But the King has no power to burden us beyond or against Law and we may thank our own Weakness if ever he have Strength to do it This shows us there is a great difference betwixt the abuse of political power and the want of it Abused power must not be resisted but Force without power may The political power of arbitrary Princes is more extensive than their moral power And this tyes the Subject to Non-resistance when
With several other Informations concerning other Fires in Southwark Fetter-Lane and elsewhere 27 5. Votes and Addresses of the Honourable House of Commons assembled in Parliament made 1673. concerning Popery and other Grievances 49 6. A Letter from a Parliament-man to his Friend concerning the Proceedings of the House of Commons this last Session begun the 13th of October 1675. 53 7. A Speech made by Sir William Scroggs one of His Majesty's Serjeants at Law to the Right Honourable the Lord Chancellor of England at his admission to the Place of one of His Majesty's Justices of the Court of Common-Pleas 56 8. A Discourse upon the Designs Practises and Councels of France 59 9. An Answer to a Letter written by a Member of Parliament in the Countrey upon the Occasion of his reading of the Gazette of the 11th of December 1679. wherein is the Proclamation for further proroguing the Parliament till the 11th of November next ensuing 67 10. The Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftsbury's Speech in the House of Lords March 25. 1679. 71 11. The Instrument or Writing of Association that the true Protestants of England entred into in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth 73 12. The Act of Parliament of the 27th of Queen Elizabeth in Confirmation of the same 74 13. A Word without doors concerning the Bill for Succession 76 14. A Collection of Speeches in the House of Commons in the Year 1680. 81 15. A Copy of the Duke of York's Bill 91 16. Some particular Matters of Fact relating to the Administration of Affairs in Scotland under the Duke of Lauderdale 93 17. The Impeachment of the Duke and Dutchess of Lauderdale with their Brother the Lord Hatton presented to his Majesty by the City of Edenburgh The matters of fact particularly relating to the Town of Edenburgh humbly offered for His Majesty's information 96 18. His Majesty's Declaration for the dissolving of His late Privy Council and for constituting a New One made in the Council-Chamber at White-hall April 20. 1679. 99 19. The Mâ—ssage from the King by Mr. Secretary Jenkins to the Commons on the 9th of November 1680. 102 20. The Address to His Majesty from the Commons on Saturday the 13th of November 1680. Ibid. 21. The Address of the Commons in Parliament to His Majesty to remove Sir George Jeffreys out of all publick Offices 103 22. His Majesty's Message to the Commons in Parliament relating to Tangier 104 23. The Humble Address of the Commons assembled in Parliament presented to His Majesty on Monday the 29th of November 1680. in answer to that Message ibid. 24. The Humble Address of the House of Commons presented to His Majesty on Tuesday the 21st of December 1680. in answer to His Majesty's Gracious Speech to both Houses of Parliament upon the 15th day of the same December 107 25. The Report of the Committee of the Commons appointed to examine the Proceedings of the Judges c. 109 26. The Report from the Committee of the Commons in Parliament appointed by the Honourable House of Commons to consider of the Petition of Richard Thompson of Bristol Clerk and to examine Complaints against him And the Resolution of the Commons in Parliament upon this Report for his Impeachment for High Crimes and Misdemeanors on Friday the 24th of December 1680. 116 27. Articles of Impeachment of Sir William Scroggs Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench by the Commons in Parliament assembled in their own Name and in the name of all the Commons of England of High Treason and other great Crimes and Misdemeanors 119 28. The Humble Petition of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common Council assembled on the 13th of January 1680. to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for the sitting of the Parliament prorogued to the 20th then instant together with the Resolutions Orders and Debates of the said Court 122 29. Vox Patriae Or the Resentments and Indignation of the Free-born Subjects of England against Popery Arbitrary Government the Duke of York or any Popish Successor being a true Collection of the Petitions and Addresses lately made from divers Counties Cities and Burroughs of this Realm to their Respective Representatives chosen to serve in the Parliament held at Oxford March 21 1680. 125 30. The Speech of the Honourable Henry Booth Esq at Chester the 2d of March 1680 1 〈◊〉 his being elected One of the Knights of the Shire for that County to serve in the Parliament summon'd to meet at Oxford the 21st of the said Month. 147 31. An Account of the Proceedings at the Sessions for the City of Westminster against Thomas Whitfield Scrievener John Smallbones Woodmonger and William Laud Painter for tearing a Petition prepared to be presented to the King for the sitting of the Parliament with an Account of the said Petition presented on the then 13th Instant and His Majesty's Gracious Answer 150. 32. The Judgment and Decree of the Vniversity of Oxford passed in their Convocation July 21 1683. against certain pernicious Books and damnable Doctrines destructive to the Sacred Persons of Princes Their State and Government and of all Humane Society 153 32. The Case of the Earl of Argyle Or an Exact and Full Account of his Tryal Escape and Sentence As likewise a Relation of several Matters of Fact for better clearing of the said Case 151 33. Murther will out Or The King's Letter justifying the Marquess of Antrim and declaring that what he did in the Irish Rebellion was by direction from His Royal Father and Mother and for the Service of the Crown 217 34. Vox Populi Or The Peoples claim to their Parliaments sitting to redress Grievances and to provide for the Common safety by the known Laws and Constitution of the Nation 219 35. The Security of English-mens Lives Or The Trust Power and Duty of the Grand Juries of England explained according to the Fundamentals of the English Government and the Declarations of the same made in Parliament by many Statutes 225 36. The Speech and Carriage of Stephen Colledge before the Castle at Oxford on Wednesday Aug. 31. 1681. taken exactly from his Mouth at the place of Execution 255 37. The Speech of the late Lord Russell to the Sheriffs together with the Paper delivered by him to them at the place of Execution July 21. 1683. 262 38. To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty the Humble Petition of Algernoon Sidney Esq 266 39. The very Copy of a Paper delivered to the Sheriffs upon the Scaffold on Friday Dec. 7. 1683. by Algernoon Sidney Esq before his Execution there 267 40. Of Magistracy 269. Of Prerogatives by Divine Right 270. Of Obedience 271. Of Laws 272. By Mr. Samuel Johnson 41. Copies of two Papers written by the late King Charles II. published by His Majesty's Command Printed in the Year 1686. 273. 42. A Letter containing some Remarks on the Two Papers writ by His late Majesty King Charles II. concerning Religion 274
43. A Brief Account of particulars occurring at the happy death of our late Soveraign Lord K. Ch. 2d in regard to Religion faithfully related by his then Assistant Mr. Jo. Huddleston 280 44. Some Reflections on His Majesty's Proclamation of the Twelfth of Feb. 1686 7. for a Toleration in Scotland together with the said Proclamation 281 45. His Majesty's Gracious Declaration to all his Loving Subjects for Liberty of Conscience 287 46. A Letter containing some Reflections on His Majesty's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience Dated April 4. 1687. 289 47. A Letter to a Dissenter upon Occasion of His Majesty's Late Gracious Declaration of Indulgence 294 48. The Anatomy of an Equivalent 300 49. A Letter from a Gentleman in the City to his Friend in the Countrey containing his Reasons for not reading the Declaration 309 50. An Answer to the City Minister's Letter from his Countrey Friend 314 51. A Letter from a Gentleman in Ireland to his Friend in London upon ocasion of a Pamphlet entituled A Vindication of the Present Government of Ireland under his Excellency Richard Earl of Tyrconnel 316 52. A Plain Account of the Persecution laid to the Charge of the Church of England 322 53. Abby and other Church Lands not yet assured to such possessors as are Roman-Catholicks dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of that Religion 326 54. The King's Power in Ecclesiastical matters truly stated 331 55. A Letter writ by Mijn Heer Fagel Pensioner of Holland to Mr. James Stewart Advocate giving an Account of the Prince and Princess of Orange's thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws 334 56. Reflections on Monsieur Fagel's Letter 338 57. Animadversions upon a pretended Answer to Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter 343 58. Some Reflections on a Discourse called Good Advice to the Church of England c. 363 59. The ill effects of Animosities 371 60. A Representation of the Threatning Dangers impending over Protestants in Great-Britain With an Account of the Arbitrary and Popish ends unto which the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland are designed 380 61. The Declaration of his Highness William Henry by the Grace of God Prince of Orange c. of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of England for preserving of the Protestant Religion and for restoring the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland 420 62. His Highnesses Additional Declaration 426 63. The then supposed Third Declaration of his Royal Highness pretended to be signed at his head Quarters at Sherborn-Castle November 28. 1688. but was written by another Person tho yet unknown 427 64. The Reverend Mr. Samuel Johnson's Paper in the year 1686. for which he was sentenc'd by the Court of Kings-Bench Sir Edward Herbert being Lord Chief Justice and Sir Francis Wythens pronouncing the Sentence to stand Three times on the Pillory and to be whipp'd from Newgate to Tyburn which barbarous Sentence was Executed 428 65. Several Reasons for the establishment of a standing Army and Dissolving the Militia by the said Mr. Johnson 429 66. To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty the Humble Petition of William Archbishop of Canterbury and divers of the suffragan Bishops of that Province then present with him in behalf of themselves and others of their absent Brethren and of the Clergy of their respective Diocesses with His Majesty's Answer 430 67. The Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the calling of a free Parliament together with His Majesty's Gracious Answer to their Lordships Ib. 68. The Prince of Orange's Letter to the English Army 431 69. Prince George his Letter to the King 432 70. The Lord Churchill's Letter to the King 432 71. The Princess Ann of Denmark's Letter to the Queen 433 72. A Memorial of the Protestants of the Church of England presented to their Royal Hignesses the Prince and Princess of Orange 433 73. Admiral Herbert's Letter to all Commanders of Ships and Seamen in His Majesty's Fleet. 434 74. The Lord Delamere's Speech 434 75. An Engagement of the Noblemen Knights and Gentlemen at Exeter to assist the Prince of Orange in the defence of the Protestant Religion Laws and Liberties of the People of England Scotland and Ireland 435 76. The Declaration of the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty at the Rendezvouz at Nottingham November 22. 1688. 436 77. His Grace the Duke of Norfolk's Speech to the Mayor of Norwich on the 1st of December in the Market-place of Norwich 437 78. The Speech of the Prince of Orange to some principal Gentlemen of Somersetshire and Dorsetshire on their coming to join his Highness at Exeter Novemb. 15. 1688. 437 79. The True Copy of a Paper delivered by the Lord Devonshire to the Mayor of Darby where he Quartered Novemb. 21. 1688. 438 80. A Letter from a Gentleman at Kings-Lynn Decemb. 7. 1688. to his Friend in London With an Address to his Grace the most Noble Henry Duke of Norfolk Lord Marshall of England Ibid. 81. His Grace's Answer with another Letter from Lynn-Regis giving the D. of Norfolk's 2d Speech there Decemb. 10. 1688. 439 82. The Declaration of the Lord 's Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guild-Hall Decemb. 11. 1688. Ibid. 83. A Paper delivered to his Highness the Prince of Orange by the Commissioners sent by His Majesty to treat with him and his Highness's Answer 1688. 440 84. The Recorder of Bristoll's Speech to his Highness the Prince of Orange Monday Jan. 7. 1688. 441. 85. The Humble Address of the Lieutenancy of the City of London to his Highness the Prince of Orange Decemb. 12. 1688. 442 86. The Humble Address of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common-Council Assembled to his Highness the Prince of Orange 443 87. The Speech of Sir Geo. Treby Knight Recorder of the Honourable City of London to his Highness the Prince of Orange Decemb. 20. 1688. Ibid. 88. His Highness the Prince of Orange's Speech to the Scotch Lords and Gentlemen with their Advice and his Highness's Answer with a true Account of what past at their meeting in the Council Chamber at White-Hall Jan. 7. 1688 9. 444 89. The Emperor of Germany's Account of K. James's Misgovernment in joining with the K. of France the Common Enemy of Christendom in his Letter to K. James 446 90. The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster concerning the Misgovernment of K. James and filling up the Throne Presented to K. William and Q. Mary by the Right Honourable the Marquess of Hallifax Speaker to the House of Lords with His Majesty's Most Gracious Answer thereunto 447 91. A Proclamation Declaring William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange to be King and Queen of England France and Ireland c. 449 92. The Declaration of the Estates of Scotland concerning the Misgovernment of K. James the 7th
and filling up the Throne with K. William and Q. Mary 450 93. A Proclamation Declaring William and Mary King and Queen of England to be King and Queen of Scotland Edinburgh April 11. 1689. 452 93. The manner of the King and Queen's taking the Coronation-Oath 453 94. The Coronation-Oath of England 454 The Coronation-Oath of Scotland Ibid. 95. Proposals humbly offered to the Lords and Commons in the present Convention for Setling of the Government 455 96. The late Honourable Convention proved a Legal Parliament 457 97. The Present Convention a Parliament 459 98. The Thoughts of a private Person about the Justice of the Gentlemens undertaking at York Novemb. 1688. wherein is shewed That it is neither against Scripture nor Moral Honesty to defend their Just and Legal Rights against the Illegal Invaders of them occasioned then by some private Debates and now submitted to better Judgments 461 99. An Enquiry into the Measures of Submission to the Supream Authority and of the Grounds upon which it may be lawful or necessary for Subjects to defend their Religion Lives and Liberties 483 100. The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy no Badges of Slavery 489 THE Earl of Clarendon's Speech ABOUT Disbanding the Army SEPTEMBER 13. 1660. My Lords and Gentlemen THE King tells you that he hath commanded me to say many particulars to you and the truth is He hath charged me with so many that I have great reason to fear that I shall stand in much need of His Mercy for omitting many things He hath given me in Command at least for delivering them in more Disorder and Confusion then Matters of such Moment and Importance ought to be to such an Assembly for which the King Himself hath even a kind of Reverence as well as an extraordinary Kindness I am to mention some things He hath done already and many things He intends to do during this Recess that you may see how well content soever he is that you should have Ease and Pleasure and Refreshment he hath designed Work enough for Himself The King hath thanked you for the Provision you have made that there may be no free Quarter during the time the Army shall be Disbanding and hath told you what He will do with that Money you have given Him if there should want wherewithal to Disband it And now I hope you will all believe that His Majesty will consent to the Disbanding He will do so And yet He does not take it unkindly at their hands who have thought that his Majesty would not Disband this Army It was a sober and a rational Jealousie No other Prince in Europe would be willing to Disband such an Army an Army to which Victory is entailed and which humanely speaking could hardly fail of Conquest whithersoever He should lead it and if God had not restored His Majesty to that rare Felicity as to be without apprehension of Danger at home or from abroad and without any Ambition of taking from his Neighbours what they are possessed of Himself would never Disband this Army an Army whose Order and Discipline whose Sobriety and Manners whose Courage and Success hath made it famous and terrible over the World an Army of which the King and His two Royal Brothers may say as the noble Grecian said of Aeneas Stetimus tela aspera contra Contulimusque manus experto credite quantus In clypeum assurgat quo turbine torqueat hastam They have all three in several Countries found themselves engaged in the midst of these Troops in the heat and rage of Battel and if any common Souldiers as no doubt many may will demand the old Roman Priviledge for having encountred Princes single upon my Conscience he will find both Favour and Perferment They have all three observed the Discipline and felt and admired and loved the Courage of this Army when they were the worse for it and I have seen them in a season when there was little else of comfort in their view refresh themselves with joy that the English had done the great Work the English had got the Day and then please themselves with the Imagination what wonders they should perform in the head of such an Army And therefore when His Majesty is so entirely possessed of the Affection and obedience of this Army and when it hath merited so much from Him can it be believed or imagined that He can without some regret part with them No My Lords and Gentlemen He will never part with them and the only sure way never to part with them is to Disband them should it be otherwise they must be exposed to the daily Importunity of His great Neighbours and Allies and how could He refuse to lend them His Troops of which He hath no use Himself His Majesty knows they are too good English men to wish that a standing Army should be kept in the howels of their own Countrey that they who did but in Bello pacis gerere negotium and who whilest an Army lived like good Husbandmen in the Countrey and good Citizens in the City will now become really such and take Delight in the Benefit of that Peace they have so honestly and so wonderfully brought to pass The King will part with them as the most indulgent Parents part with their Children for their Education and for their Perferment He will prefer them to Disbanding and prefer them by Disbanding and will always retain such a Kindness for them and such a Memory of the Service they have done him that both Officers and Souldiers after they are Disbanded shall always find such countenance favour and reward from His Majesty that He doubts not but if he should have Occasion to use their Service they will again resort to Him with the same Alacrity as if they had never been Disbanded And if there be any so ill amongst them as there can be but very few if any who will forfeit that Favour and Protection they may have from Him by any withstanding His Majesties Commands and the full and declared sense of the Kingdom His Majesty is confident they will be as odious to their Companions as they can be to any other honest Men. My Lords and Gentlemen I am in the next place by the Kings Command to put you in mind of the Act of Indemnity not of any Grants or Concessions or Releases He made to you in that Act I have nothing of that in charge no Prince hath so excellent a memory to forget the Favours he doth but of what He hath done against you in that Act how you may be undone by that Act if you are not very careful to perform the Obligations He hath laid upon you in it the clause I am to put you in mind of is this And to the intent and purpose that all names and terms of Distinction may be likewise put into utter Oblivion Be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if any Person or Persons within the space of three Years next
ensuing shall presume so maliciously to call or alledge or object against any other Person or Persons any Name or Names or other words of Reproach any way leading to revive the Memory of the late Differences or the occasion thereof That then every such Person so as aforesaid offending shall forfeit c. It is no matter for the Penalty it is too cheap a one the King wishes it had been greater and therefore hath by His just Prerogative and 't is well for us He hath such a Prerogative added another Penalty more insupportable even His high Displeasure against all who shall swerve from this Clause in the Act. Give me leave to tell you that as many Name or Names or other words of Reproach are expresly against the Letter and punishable accordingly so evil and envious looks murmuring and discontented hearts are as directly against the Equity of this Statute a direct breach of the Act of Indempnity and ought to be be punished too And I believe they may be so You know Kings are in some sense called Gods and so they may in some degree be able to look into mens hearts and God hath given us a King who can look as far into mens hearts as any Prince alive and he hath great skill in Physiognomy too you would wonder what Calculations He hath made from thence and no doubt if He be provoked by evil looks to make a further Enquiry into mens hearts and finds those corrupted with the Passions of Envy and Uncharitableness He will never choose those hearts to trust and rely upon He hath given us a Noble and Princely Example by opening and stretching His Arms to all who are worthy to be His Subjects worthy to be thought Englishmen by extending His heart with a pious and grateful joy to find all His Subjects at once in His Arms and Himself in theirs and shall we fold our arms towards one another and contract our hearts with Envy and Malice to each other by any sharp memory of what hath been unneighbourly or unkindly done heretofore What is this but to rebell against the Person of the King against the excellent Example and Vertue of the King against the known Law of the Land this blessed Act of Oblivion My Lords and Gentlemen The King is a Suitor to you makes it His Suit very heartily That you will joyn with Him in restoring the whole Nation to its primitive Temper and Integrity to its old good Manners its old good Humour and its old good Nature Good Nature a Vertue so peculiar to you so appropriated by God Almighty to this Nation that it can be translated into no other Language hardly practised by any other People and that you will by your Example by the Candor of your Conversation by your Precepts and by your Practise and by all your Interest teach your Neighbours and your Friends how to pay a full Obedience to this Clause of the Statute how to learn this excellent Art of Forgetfulness Let them remember and let us remember how ungracious how undecent how ugly the Insolence the Fierceness the Bruitishness of their Enemies appeared to them and we may piously and reasonably believe that Gods Indignation against them for their want of Bowels for their not being Englishmen for they had the hearts of Pagans and Infidels sent a Whirlwind in a moment to blow them out of the World that is out of a capacity to do more mischief in the World except we practise their Vices and do that our selves which we pretend to detest them for Let us not be too much ashamed as if what hath been done amiss proceeded from the humour and the temper and the nature of our Nation The Astrologers have made us a fair excuse and truly I hope a true one all the motions of these last twenty Years have been unnatural and have proceeded from the evil Influence of a malignant Star and let us not too much despise the Influence of the Stars And the same Astrologers assure us that the Malignity of that Star is expired the good Genius of this Kingdom is become Superiour and hath mastered that Malignity and our own good old Stars govern us again and their Influence is so strong that with our help they will repair in a Year what hath been decaying in twenty and they only shall have no excuse from the Star who continue their Malignity and own all the ill that is past to be their own by continuing and improving it for the time to come If any body here or any where else be too much exalted with what he hath done or what he hath suffered and from thence thinks himself waranted to reproach others let him remember the story of Nicephorus it is an excellent story and very applicable to such Distempers He was a pious and a religious man and for his Piety and Religion was condemned to the fire when he was led to Execution and when an old Friend who had done him injury enough fell at his feet and asked him Pardon the poor Man was so elevated with the Triumph he was going unto with the Glory of Martyrdom that he refused to be reconciled unto him upon which he was disapointed of his end and for this Uncharitableness the Spirit of God immediately forsook him and he apostatized from the Faith Let all those who are too proud of having been as they think less faulty then other Men and so are unwilling to be reconciled to those who have offended them take heed of the Apostacy of Nicephorus and that those fumes of Envy and Uncharitableness and Murmuring do not so far transport and intoxicate them that they fall into those very Crimes they value themselves for having hitherto declined But My Lords and Gentlemen whilest we conspire together to execute faithfully this part of the Bill to put all old Names and Terms of Distinction into utter Oblivion let us not find new Names and Terms to keep up the same or a worse Disstinction If the old Reproaches of Cavalier and Round-head and Malignant be committed to the Grave let us not find more significant and better words to signifie worse things let not Piety and Godliness grow into terms of Reproach and disstinguish between the Court and the City and the Countrey and let not Piety and Godliness be measured by a morosity in Manners an affectation of Gesture a new mode and tone of Speaking at least let not our Constitutions and Complexions make us be thought of a contrary Party and because we have not an affected austerity in our looks that we have not Piety in our hearts Very merry Men have been very godly Men and if a good Conscience be a continual Feast there is no reason but Men may be merry at it You Mr. Speaker have this Day made a noble Present to the King Do you think if you and your worthy Companions had brought it up with folded Arms down-cast Looks with Sighs and other Instances of Desperation it
from those Contentions whilest every one pretended to all the Marks which are to attend upon the true Church except only that which is inseparable from it Charirity to one another My Lords and Gentlemen This Disquisition hath cost the King many a Sigh many a sad Hour when he hath considered the almost irreparable Reproach the Protestant Religion hath undergone from the Divisions and Distractions which have been so notorious within this Kingdom What pains he hath taken to compose them after several Discourses with learned and pious Men of different Perswasions you will shortly see by a Declaration He will publish upon that Occasion by which you will see His great Indulgence to those who can have any Protection from Conscience to differ with their Brethren And I hope God will so bless the Candor of His Majesty in the Condescentions he makes that the Church as well as the State will return to that Unity and Unanimity which will make both King and People as happy as they can hope to be in this World My Lords and Gentlemen I shall conclude with the Kings hearty thanks to you not only for what you have done towards Him which hath been very signal but for what you have done towards each other for the excellent correspondence you have maintained for the very seasonable Deference and Condescention you have had for each other which will restore Parliaments to the Veneration they ought to have And since His Majesty knows that you all desire to please him you have given him ample Evidence that you do so He hath appointed me to give you a sure Receipt to attain that good End it is a Receipt of His own prescribing and therefore is not like to fail Be but pleased your selves and perswade others to be so contrive all the ways imaginable for your own Happiness and you will make Him the best pleased and the most happy Prince in the World THE State of ENGLAND Both at HOME and ABROAD In Order to The Designs of France CONSIDERED To the READER THIS Discourse being imaginarily Scened and yet really performed out of the Treasure of a very great Minister of State 's Capacity it was thought fit to be Published now and not before because that Respect ought to be payed to the Secret of his Majesty's Affairs so as nothing should anticipate the King 's own Labours to give the People Satisfaction in his due time touching the tender Care that He is graciously pleased to take of all his Subjects in point of Honour Safety Freedom Union and Commerce which nothing could more advance then the Conclusion of the Treaty newly made betwixt England and the States of the United Provinces which without Flattery may be demonstrated to Men of Understanding to aim at nothing but the Good of His Subjects in general exempt from all manner of private Interest whatsoever Blessed be God then that it is so happily concluded and that we have a King whom nothing can ever alienate from the true Interest of his Realms nor no corrupt Counsellour let him be thought to be never so Powerful or Crafty in order to his own Advantages prevent the Wisdom and Integrity of such a Prince from prevailing above the Artifices and Frauds of those who would perswade the Nation were they competent Masters of their Art enough so to do that those Counsellors who are not interested can be less prudent or successful then such as did make it their Business to appropriate all to themselves and nothing to their Master The French King is much commended for his Parts and Activity but let us see him out-do the King of England in this particular of the Treaty both in Courage and Conduct and then I shall be apt to attribute his Grandeur as much to natural Abilities as extraordinary Fortune but not before THE State of England c. THE Adventure which happened unto me lately is of so extraordinary a nature and contains so many important Discoveries in relation to the publick Good in its Progress that I should prove defective towards my Countrey if I did not candidly publish all the Passages both touching the Occasion and Effects of what followed from this Accident Know then that a Peer of the Realm of England and one whose Merit Quality and the Place which he holds in the Administration of the Affairs of the Kingdom are remarkable did invite sundry of his Lordship's best Friends to a magnificent Feast and amongst the rest he had the kindness not to omit me out of the number where the excellence of the Chear which he made to his Guests after a most noble manner put the whole Company into such a refined humour of conversing together that the Entertainment was but one intire pleasing Debate how to express our compleat enjoying of each other I was not wanting with the uttermost of Vigour and Solace to uphold the Genious of this Conference But as the freest speakers do commonly come by the worst in Discourse and are the soonest exposed to enterfiering lashes I found my self to be attacqued in so many places at once with the swiftness of other Mens Reasons and Wits who held the opposite Arguments that although I were something heated yet there remained unto me presence of mind enough and success of Intervalls to get insensibly out of the Press whilst the Disorder and Confusion lasted which is usual at such Meetings into another room I retired then pursuing the Opportunity into a fair Gallery which surprised my Eyes with the rich Ornaments wherewith it was furnished but not without trouble neither and a Curiosity beyond the Opticks of the Place which increased there so as I was diverted from any farther Consideration of the Furniture because the Place seemed to lie too near the Enemy to dwell any longer upon those Objects Wherefore I went into another Chamber hard by which instantly filled me with new Apprehensions by the means of several large Looking-Glasses hanging on the Walls which shewed me my own proper Figure at length on every side and from thence imprinted in my wounded Imagination as many Adversaries as there were angular Reflections out of each Mirrour that appeared to pursue me so furiously that I ran on violently with my head forwards in order to some Escape to the door of another Chamber adjoyning thereunto which opened with such Resistance when I thrust against it as if it had been forced with a Petard And thus falling in the Attempt I was so stunned that it was a good while after before I could come to my self again But at last having partly recovered my spirits I was surprised with a fresh astonishment as much amazed me as the former had done that I repeated for when I began to open my eyes half way finding that till then they had been altogether unuseful to me I attributed the Disorder to want of Sight often feeling in regard of the Darkness of the Room to try whether they were still in my head or not
the eighteen Months Assessment granted by a late Act of Parliamert Intituled An Act for raising the Sum of Twelve hundred thirty eight thousand and seven hundred and fifty Pounds for the Supply of his Majesties present Occasions be expended Except it shall appear that the Obstinacy of the Dutch shall render it necessary Nor before this Kingdom be effectually Secured from Popery and Popish Counsels and the other present Grievances be 〈◊〉 And An Address ordered to be presented to His Majesty for a Fast to be observed throughout the Nation and a Committee appointed for that purpose A further Address to be presented to his Majesty concerning the Marriage of the Duke of York with the Dutchess of Modena And the Privy Counsellors of this House to attend His Majesty to know His Pleasure when he will be attended therewith And they Adjourned till to Morrow in the Afternoon November 3. 1673. A Report from the Committee appointed for that purpose was made for an Address to be presented to His Majesty to appoint a General Fast to be observed throughout the Nation and the Concurrence of the Lords to be desired thereto The standing-Army voted a Grievance A Committee appointed to prepare an Address to be presented to his Majesty to shew how this Standing-Army is a Grievance and then adjourned till Three of the Clock in the Afternoon Mr. Speaker and the House went to attend His Majesty at Whitehall with the Address who returning Mr. Speaker reports That it was a Matter he would take into his present Consideration and would return speedily an Answer And then the House Adjourned till to Morrow Morning eight of the Clock November 4. 1673. The House of Commons having Ordered an Address to be made to his Majesty shewing that the Standing-Army was a Grievance and a Burden to the Nation and did intend that Day to wait on his Majesty to present it But his Majesty was in his Robes in the House of Peers and the Lords hastning to him the Black-Rod being sent to the Commons-House to Command the Speaker and the Commons to come to his Majesty to the House of Peers but it so happened that the Speaker and the Black-Rod met both at the Commons-House door the Speaker being within the House the Door was commanded to be shut and they cried to the Chair others said the Black-Rod was at the Door to command them to wait on the King to the House of Peers but the Speaker was hurried to the Chair Then was moved 1. That our Alliance with France was a Grievance 2. That the evil Counsel about the King was a Grievance to this Nation 3. That the Lord Lauderdale was a Person that was a Grievance to this Nation and not fit to be intrusted or imployed in any Office or Place of Trust but to be removed Whereupon they cried To the Question But the Black-Rod knocking very earnestly at the Door the Speaker rose out of the Chair and went away in a Confusion A LETTER FROM A PARLIAMENT-MAN to his FRIEND Concerning the Proceedings of the House of Commons This last Session begun the 13 of October 1675. SIR I See you are greatly Scandalized at our slow and confused Proceedings I confess you have cause enough but were you but within these Walls for one half Day and saw the strange Make and Complexion that this House is of you would wonder as much that ever you wondred at it For we are such a pied Parliament that none can say of what Colour we are for we consist of old Cavaliers old Round-heads Indigent Courtiers and true Country Gentlemen the two latter are most numerous and would in probability bring things to some Issue were they not clogged with the humorous uncertainties of the former For the old Cavalier grown Aged and almost past his Vice is damnable Godly and makes his doating Piety more a Plague to the World then his youthful Debauchery was For he is so much a Byggot to the Bishops that he forces his Loyalty to strike Sail to his Religion and could be content to pare the Nails a little of the Civil Government so you would but let him sharpen the Ecclesiastical Tallons which behaviour of his so exasperates the Round-head that he on the other hand cares not what Increases the Interest of the Crown receives so he can but diminish that of the Miter so that the Round-head had rather enslave the Man than the Conscience The Cavalier rather the Conscience than the Man there being a sufficient stock of Animosity as proper matter to work upon Upon these therefore the Courtier mutually plays For if any Anticourt motion be made he gains the Rounhead either to oppose or absent by telling them If they will joyn him now he will joyn with them for Liberty of Conscience And when any Affair is started on the behalf of the Country he assures the Cavaliers If they will then stand by him he will then joyn with them in promoting a Bill against the Fanaticks Thus play they on both hands that no Motion of a publick nature is made but they win upon the one or other of them and by this Art gain a Majority against the Country Gentlemen which otherwise they would never have Wherefore it were happy that we had neither Roundhead nor Cavalier in the House for they are each of them so Prejudicate one against the other that their sitting here signifies nothing but their Fostering their old Venome and lying at Catch to snap every Advantage to bear down each other though it be in the Destruction of their Country For if the Round-heads bring in a good Bill the old Cavalier opposes it for no other reason but because they brought it So that as the poor English Silk-weavers are feign to hire a French-man to sell their Ribbons So are the Round-heads a Cavalier to move for those Bills they desire should pass which so sowers the Round-head that he revenges that Carriage upon any Bill the Cavalier offers and the Rage and the Passion of the one and other are so powerful that it blinds them both that neither perceives the Advantage they give the Courtier to abuse both them and their Country too so that if either of them do any Good it is only out of pure Envy against the other Thus you see how we are yoked and seeing this you may cease your Admiration that we offer at all and do just nothing Nor is this Division alone of the House all we have to lament for Death that common Cure does now every Day lessen this evil but that which is more our Misery is that those Gentlemen who are truly for the Good of their Country will not be perswaded to stand upon the sure Basis of Rational Principles like Workmen too presumptive of their Judgments that will not build by Rule but rather affect the most loose Standing on the Sandy Foundation of Heat and Humour By reason of which they often do as much Harm as Good and yet
or two Months and then they assure the Court since they can get no good by them they shall take no harm and therefore to stop them from some worthy Undertaking they by their feigned Zeal against Court Corruptions put them upon Impeaching some Treasurer Councellor or Minister of State and having spent half our time about this the rest is spent for the Clergy upon Church-Work which we have been so often put upon and tired with these many Sessions Though Partiality unbecomes a Parliament who ought to lay the whole Body that we represent alike easie Nonconformists as well as Conformists for we were chosen by both and with that Intention that we should oppress neither To lay one part therefore of the Body on a Pillow and the other on a Rack sorts our Wisdom little but our Justice worse You now see all our Shapes save only the Indigents concerning whom I need say but little for their Votes are publickly saleable for a Guinea and a Dinner every Day in the Week unless the House be upon Money or a Minister of State For that is their Harvest and then they make their Earnings suit the Work they are about which inclines them most constantly as sure Cliants to the Court. For what with gaining the one and saving the other they now and then adventure a Vote on the Country side but the dread of Dissolution makes them strait tack about The only thing we are obliged to them for is that they do nothin Gratis but make every Tax as well Chargeable to the Court as burthensom to the Countrey and save no Mans Neck but they break his Purse And yet when all is said did but the Countrey Gentry rightly understand the Interest of Liberty Let the Courtiers and Indigents do what they could they might yet at last deserve the Name of a worthy English Parliament which that we may do is not more passionately your Desire then it also is of SIR Your most Humble Servant T. E. A SPEECH MADE BY Sir William Scrogg ONE OF HIS Majesties Sergeants at Law To the Right Honourable the Lord High Chancellor Of ENGLAND AT HIS Admission to the Place of One of His Majesties Justices of the Court of Common-Pleas My Lord THAT the King's Favour is the Effect of the Duty I have paid him which your Lordship is pleas'd to call Service is the most welcome and pleasing part of his Kindness and I trust we shall still see such Times that no Man shall hope to have it or keep it on any other Account The right Application of Rewards and Punishments is the steady Justice of a Nation where though the Rewards of Kings exceed what a Subject can merit they should never reach him that demerits To return Good for Evil may be an Obligation of Charity It is never of Bounty And the taking off as they call it of an Ambitious and therefore a Factious Man by Favours is the worst way to stop or open his Mouth for he will whisper one way louder then he will speak the other And when you think you gain one Enemy you make many On such an Occasion as this I think it very proper to give your Lordship some Account what Considerations I have had in order to the Discharge of my Duty in this Place since the King 's first Intimations of his Pleasure And that respects Matters either as they stand betwixt the King and his People or betwixt Man and Man As for the First I know that the Law gives such Prerogatives to the King that to endeavour more were to desire worse and it gives to the People such Liberties that more would be Licentious What then hath a Man to do that hath Courage enough to be Honest but to Apply his Understanding to the Ministration of those Laws justly to both wherein I may say that the Cases will be rare that will be difficult in themselves They may be made so from sinister Causes when Men thinking to serve a Turn or like Pilate to please the People deliver up that which is Right to be Crucified Then they are fain to rack their Fancies to make good their Faults This makes such nice Distinctions and such strained Constructions till they leave nothing plain in the World Whereas in truth the Duty we owe to the King and his People is like the Duty we owe to God not hard to understand whatever it is to Practise This Court My Lord 't is true is properly a Court of Meum and Tuum where Prerogative and Liberty are seldom Plaintiffs or Defendants but yet 't is certain that even in private Causes Matter of Government many times intervenes and the Publick is concern'd by Consequence And therefore I think it fair and like English Honesty and Plainness something to unveil one's self in that particular that Men may know before-hand what they may expect And herein I do declare I would no more wrong or lessen the People's Liberties then I would sacrifice up my Son But then I will no more derogate from the King's Prerogative then I would betray my Father My Lord In time when Faction is so bold as to be bare-fac'd and false and seditious News is openly talk'd and greedily embrac'd when the King 's reasonable Demands are disputed and turned into Cavils and those that oppose 'em talk confidently and those that should maintain 'em speak fearfully and tenderly when the Reverence we owe to the King is paid to the People the Government is beset the King is in Danger and there is nothing wanting but Opportunity But when to prevent that Opportunity Men are afraid and hold it dangerous to avoid the Danger when we dare not call a Crime by its right name and for some find none and a Mischief must be effected before we will think it one When dangerous Attempts are minc'd and by some trivial difference Treason is distinguish'd into a Trespass when Men are forward and ventrous enough in what thwarts the Government but in supporting it seem grave and cautious nice and timorous and so fill'd with Prudentials till they are as wise as fear can make 'em The Law is enervated and becomes useless to its greatest end which is the Preservation of the whole 'T is true in Publick Causes the same Integrity is necessary as in Private But that is but part of a Judge's Duty He must be Magnanimous as well as Virtuous And I acknowledge it to be a main and principal part of my Duty as it relates to the King and his People with hearty Resolution to suppress all open Force and private Confederacies not thinking any thing little that attempts the Publick Safety for when the Motives are small the Danger is greater when Discontents exceed their Causes And for the Discharge of my Duty betwixt Party and Party it is impossible to be performed without these two Cardinal Virtues Temper and Cleanness of Hands Temper comprehends Patience Humility and Candor It seems to me that Saying Be quick
but Christianity itself that lies at stake For in the Ruine of the Empire the Turks work is done to his hand by breaking down the only Fence that has preserv'd us all this while from the Incursions of the Ottoman Power Now as nothing can be more glorious than at all hazards to hinder the effusion of more Christian Blood and to save Christendom itself from Bondage it is so much our Interest too that we our selves are lost without it And as the Obligation is reciprocal so the Resolution is necessary The choice we have before us being only this Either to unite with our Neighbours for a Common Safety or to stand still and look on the tame Spectators of their Ruine till we fall alone This is so demonstrative that if we do not by a powerful Alliance and Diversion prevent the Conquest of Flanders which lies already a gasping we are cut off from all Communication with the rest of Europe and coop'd up at home to the irrecoverable loss of our Reputation and Commerce for Holland must inevitably follow the Fate of Flanders and then the French are Masters of the Sea Ravage our Plantations and infallibly possess themselves of the Spanish Indies and leave us answerable for all those Calamities that shall ensue upon it which as yet by God's Providence may be timely prevented But he that stills the raging of the Sea will undoubtedly set Bounds to this overflowing Greatness having now as an Earnest of that Mercy put it into the Hearts of our Superiours to provide seasonably for the Common Safety and in proportion also to the Exigence of the Affair knowing very well that things of this Nature are not to be done by halves We have to do with a Nation of a large Territory abounding in Men and Money their Dominion is grown absolute that no Man there can call any thing his own if the Court says Nay to 't So that the sober and industrious part are only Slaves to the Lusts and Ambition of the Military In this Condition of Servitude they feel already what their Neighbours fear and wish as well to any Opportunity either of avoiding or of casting off the Yoke which will easily be given by a Conjunction of England and Holland at Sea and almost infallibly produce these effects First It will draw off the Naval Force of France from Sicily America and else-where to attend this Expedition Secondly The Diversion will be an Ease to the Empire and the Confederates from whence more Troops must be drawn to encounter this Difficulty than the French can well spare Thirdly It will not only encourage those Princes and States that are already engag'd but likewise keep in awe those that are disaffected and confirm those that waver 'T is true this War must needs be prodigiously expensive but then in probability it will be short And in Cases of this Quality People must do as in a Storm at Sea rather throw part of the Lading over-board than founder the Vessel I do not speak this as supposing any difficulty in the Case for the very contemplation of it has put fire into the Veins of every true English-man and they are moved as by a sacred impulse to the necessary and the only means of their Preservation And that which Crowns our hopes is that these generous Inclinations are only ready to execute what the Wisdom of their Superiours shall find reasonable to Command I need not tell you how jealous the People of England are of their Religion and Liberties to what degree they have contended even for the shadow of these Interests nor how much Blood and Treasure they have spent upon the Quarrel Could any Imposture work so much and can any Man imagine that they will be now less sensible when they see before their eyes a manifest Plot upon their Religion their Liberties invaded their Traffick interrupted the Honour and the very Being of their Country at stake their Wives and Children expos'd to Beggary and Scorn and in Conclusion The Priviledge of a Free-born English-man exchanged for the Vassalage of France An ANSWER to a LETTER written by a Member of Parliament in the Country upon the occasion of his Reading of the Gazette of the 11th of December 1679 wherein is the Proclamation for further Proroguing the Parliament till the 11th of November next ensuing SIR I Received your Letter when I was ingaged in much other business which will excuse me that I have not returned an Answer sooner and that is done no better now You desire me to let you know what that Judgment is which my Lord Chancellor acquainted my Lord Mayor and his Brethren with and what my thoughts are upon it And that I may obey you in both I will first Transcribe that Case as it is reported by Justice Crook that being already put into English whereas the Case in Moor is in French MEmorandum That by Command from the King all the Justices of England Cro. Ja. f. 37. Nov. 100. Moor 755. with divers of the Nobility viz. The Lord Ellesmere Lord-Chancellor the Earl of Dorset Lord-Treasurer Viscount Cranbourn Principal Secretary the Earl of Nottingham Lord Admiral the Earls of Northumberland Worcester Devon and Northampton the Lords Zouch Burghley and Knowles the Chancellor of the Dutchy the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishop of London Popham Chief Justice Bruce Masters of the Rolls Anderson Gawdy Walmesley Fenner Kingsmil Warburton Savel Daniel Yelverton and Snigg were assembled in the Star-Chamber where the Lord Chancellor after a long Speech made by him concerning Justices of the Peace and his Exhortation to the Justices of Assize and a Discourse concerning Papists and Puritans declaring how they both were Disturbers of the State and that the King intending to suppress them and to have the Laws put in execution against them demanded of the Justices their Resolutions in three things First Whether the Deprivation of Puritan-Ministers by the High Commissioners for refusing to conform themselves to the Ceremonies appointed by the last Canons was lawful Whereto all the Justices answered That they had conferred thereof before and held it to be lawful because the King hath the Supreme Ecclesiastical Power which he hath delegated to the Commissioners whereby they had the Power of Deprivation by the Canon-Law of the Realm And the Statute of 1 Eliz. which appoints Commissioners to be made by the Queen doth not confer any new Power but explain and declare the Ancient Power And therefore they held it clear That the King without Parliament might make Orders and Constitutions for the Government of the Clergy and might deprive them if they obeyed not And so the Commissioners might deprive them But they could not make any Constitutions without the King And the divulging of such Ordinances by Proclamation is a most gracious Admonition And forasmuch as they have refused to obey they are lawfully deprived by the Commissioners ex Officio without Libel Et ore tenus convocati Secondly Whether a Prohibition
be grantable against the Commissioners upon the Statute of 2 H. 5. if they do not deliver the Copy of the Libel to the Party Whereto they all answered That that Statute is intended where the Ecclesiastical Judge proceeds ex Officio ore tenus Thirdly Whether it were an Offence punishable and what Punishment they deserved who framed Petitions and collected a multitude of hands thereto to prefer to the King in a publick cause as the Puritans had done with an intimation to the King That if he denied their Sute many thousands of his Subjects would be discontented Whereto all the Justices answered That it was an Offence finable at Discretion and very near to Treason and Felony in the Punishment For they tended to the raising of Sedition Rebellion and Discontent among the People To which Resolution all the Lords agreed And then many of the Lords declared That some of the Puritans had raised a false Rumor of the King how he intended to grant a Toleration to Papists Which Offence the Justices conceived to be heinously finable by the Rules of the Common Law either in the Kings Bench or by the King and his Councel or now since the Statute of 3 H. 7. in the Star-Chamber And the Lords severally declared how the King was discontented with the said false Rumor and had made but the Day before a Protestation unto them that he never intended it and that he would spend the last drop of Bloud in his Body before he would do it and prayed that before any of his Issue should maintain any other Religion than what he truly professed and maintained that God would take them out of the World I doubt not but yourself and every English Protestant will joyn with this Royal Petitioner and will heartily say Amen But you desire to know if I think the Resolution of the Judges in this case ought to deter us from humbly Petitioning his Majesty that this Parliament may effectually sit on the 26th day of January next In order to this give me leave to observe to you As it is most certain that a great Reverence is due to the Unanimous Opinion of all the Judges so there is a great difference to be put between the Authority of their Judgments when solemnly given in Cases depending before them and their sudden and extrajudicial Opinions The Case of Ship-money it self is not a better proof of this than that which you have now read as you will now see if you consider distinctly what they say to the several Questions proposed to them As to their Answer to the first Question it much concerns the Reverend Clergy to enquire whither they did not mistake in it And whether the King by his Proclamation can make new constitutions and oblige them to obedience under the Penalty of Deprivation Should it be so and should this unhappy Kingdom ever suffer under the Reign of a Popish Prince he might easily rid himself of such obstinate Hereticks and leave his Ecclesiastical Preferments open for Men of better Principles He will need only to publish a Proclamation that Spittle and Salt should be used in Baptism that Holy-water should be used and Images set up in Churches and a few more such things as these and the Business were effectually done But if you will believe my Lord Chief Justice Cook 12. Co. 19. 12. Co. 49. he will tell you that it was agreed by all the Judges upon Debate Hill 4to Jacobi that the King cannot change his Ecclesiastical Law and you may easily remember since the whole Parliament declared That he could not alter or suspend them I have the uniform Opinion of all the Judges given upon great Deliberation Co. Mag. Char. 616. Mich. 4to Jac. to justifie me if I say that our Judges here were utterly mistaken in the Answer which they gave to the second Question I will not cite the numerous subsequent Authorities since every man knows that it is the constant practice of Westminster-Hall at this Day to grant Prohibitions upon refusal to give a Copy of Articles where the Proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts are ex Officio You see there was a kind of ill Fate upon the Judges this day as usually there was when met in the Star-chamber and that they were very unfortunate in answering two of the three Questions proposed to them let us go on to consider what does principally concern us at present their Answer to the last Question You have just done reading it and therefore I need not repeat to you either the Doubt or the Solution of it but one may be allowed to say modestly that it was a sudden Answer 'T is possible the Lords then present were well enough inform'd when they were told that such kind of Petitioning was an Offence next to Treason and Felony but I dare be so bold as to say That at this Day not a Lawyer in England would be the wiser for such an Answer they would be confounded and not know whether it were Misprision of Treason which seems an Offence nearest to Treason or Petty-larceny which seems nearest to Felony You will be apt to tell me that I mistake my Lords the Judges and they spoke not of the nature of the crime but the manner of the Punishment but this will mend the matter but little for since the Punishments of those two Crimes are so very different you are still as much in the dark as ever what these ambiguous words mean Well but we will agree that the Crime about which the Enquiry was made was a very great one When Men arrive to such Insolence as to threaten their Prince it will be but little excuse to them to call their Menaces by the soft and gentle Name of Petitions But you would know for what and in what manner we are at present to Petition 13 Car. 2. c. 5 and I will give you a plain and infallible Rule It is the Statute 13 Car. 2. c. 5. Be it enacted c. that no person or persons whatsoever shall solicite labour or procure the getting of hands or other consent of any persons above the number of twenty or more to any Petition Complaint Remonstance Declaration or other Addresses to the King or both or either Houses of Parliament for alteration of matters established by Law in Church or State unless the matter thereof have been first consented to and ordered by three or more Justices of the County or by the major part of the Grand Jury of the County or Division of the County where the same matter shall arise at their publick Assizes or General Quarter-Sessions or if arising in London by the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in Common Council assembled and that no person or persons whatsoever shall repair to His Majesty or both or either of the Houses of Parliament upon Pretence of presenting or delivering any Petition Complaint Remonstrance or Declaration or other Addresses accompanied with excessive Number of People not at
any one time with above the Number of ten Persons upon the Pain of incurring a Penalty not exceeding the Sum of 100 l. in Money and Three Months Imprisonment without Bail or Mainprize for every Offence which Offence to be prosecuted at the Court of Kings-bench or at the Assizes or general Quarter-Sessions within six Months after the Offence committed and proved by two or more credible Witnesses Here you observe the Parliament who set themselves directly to obviate all the Inconveniences which might arise to the Government from tumultuous petitioning will not allow that great Numbers should joyn in Petitions for alteration of the Laws because it is possible ill Men should abuse such Liberty unless the matter of the Petition be conâ—â—â—ted to in such a manner as the Act directs but in all other Cases they leave the Subjects to their undoubted Liberty as well knowing that from thence there could arise no possible Inconvenience but on the contrary that to bar the People of that humble way of making their Wants known might force them upon worse ways of doing it And therefore I must tell you that you do my Lord Chancellor great Injustice if you think his Speech tends to deter Men from all manner of petitioning No that wise and eloquent Lord who receives every day so many Petitions will I suppose be content the King should receive some too It never yet was thought * It is the Right of all People that apprehend themselves aggrieved to approach his Majesty by Petition Mr. Finch's Argument in the Trial of the Seven Bishops f. 105. The Subjects have a Right to Petition the King in all their Grievances so say all our Books of Law and so says the Statute 13 Car. 2. Sergeant Levinz in the same Trial fol. 121. It was one Article against the Earl of Strafford That he Issued out a Proclamation and Warrant of Restraint to inhibit the Kings Subjects to come to the Fountain their Sovereign to deliver their Complaints of their Wrongs and Oppressions Rushw in his Trial 721. seditious or tumultuous in any Government for the Subjects in an humble manner to beg That he who has the only Power to do it would redress their Grievances 'T is the way by which we apply our selves to the King of Heaven who knows all our Wants and yet expects from us that we should daily express them to him in humble Petitions And the Wisdom of the Church which has appointed Liturgies and Forms of Common-Prayer seems to instruct us that God is pleased when huge Numbers joyn in the same Petition Why should not then suppliant Subjects with like Humility and in like manner address themselves to the God on Earth Especially since Kings cannot know our Desires or our Grievances till we our selves inform them what they are I remember some wicked Councellors of Darius did once obtain a Law to be made that none should Petition any one but the King for thirty Days but there never yet was found so absurd a States-man as to advise a Law that Subjects should not supplicate their Prince 'T is probable it would be well for some Favourites who are near a King if such a Right could be taken from the People for then all their false Suggestions and Informations might pass undiscovered but 't is impossible that a King should long be safe in such a Condition I will suppose a malicious States-man intending to raise a Jealousie in the Mind of the Sovereign should inform him in dangerous times that he was not beloved by his People and that he was not to trust them How could the Subjects in such a Case recover the Prince's good Opinion in the Absence of a Legal Representative but by humble and affectionate Addresses Or suppose some good Protestant Prince should be so unfortunate as to have some Councellors near him who are conceal'd and others whose Crimes make them fear Parliaments it is easie to suppose that the one sort will be filling his Ears with Stories that a great part of his Kingdom are inclined to Popery and the other sort that the best of his Subjects are quite out of Love with Parliaments as factious and seditious Assemblies Into what unfortunate Circumstances would such a Prince be apt to fall if his People were percluded from Addressing themselves and opening their Desires to him I might go on to trouble you with infinite Instances of this Nature but there is no want of any in so plain a case 'T is the Doctrine of our Church that the only Arms of Subjects are Prayers Petitions Supplications and Tears and they are no Friends either to the King or Church Hâ—b 220. Wrenhams Case Vet. Magn. Chart. Exil Hugi. De Spencer 51. who would disarm us of these My Lord Chief Justice Hobbart tell us That it is lawful for any Subject to petition to the King for Redress in an humble and modest manner for says he Access to the Sovereign must not be shut up in case of the Subjects Distresses It was one of the Crimes for which the Spencers were banished by Parliament that they hindred the King from receiving and answering Petitions from great Men and others And as it is our unquestionable Right Be the Right of the Subject never so clear manifest and acknowledged by all yet if his own be detained from him by the King he hath no other Writ or Account to recover but a mere Petition Supplicare Celsitudini c. A Learned Judge's Argument about Impositions Printed 1641. p. 26. so in all Ages the Usage has been by Petition to inform our King of our Grievances In the Reign of King Ed. 2. and Ed. 3. Petitions were frequent for Redress of publick Grievances and for Parliaments especially out of Ireland though that is a conquer'd Nation as may be seen in the close Rolls of the Reigns of those two Kings One Instance I will give you for your Satisfaction but I will tire you with no more for that would be endless 'T is Claus 10. Ed. 2. M. 28. Claus 10. E. 2. M. 28. intus Pro communitate Hiberniae Intus pro Communitate Hiberniae Rex Dilect fideliter suis Justa Cancellar Thesaur suis Hib. salutem ex parte populi nostri terrae praedict per Petitionem suam coram nobis Concilio nostro exhibitum nobis est cum instantia supplicare quod cum c. In the 5th year of King Richard the II. the whole Body of the Realm petition'd Cookes Jurisdiction of Courts p. 79. Burarts History of the Reformation Pag. 231. Procl Dat. 7. Feb. 11. Jac. that the most wise and able men within the Realm might be chosen Chancellors King Henry the 8. told his Subjects then in Arms against him in York-shire that they ought not to have rebell'd but to have applied themselves to him by Petition King James by a Proclamation publisht in the 12th year of his Reign begins thus The Complaints lately exhibited to us
by certain Noblemen and others of our Kingdom of Ireland suggesting Disorders and Abuses as well in the Proceedings of the late begun Parliament as in the Martial and Civil Government of the Kingdom We did receive with extraordinary Grace and Favour And by another Proclamation in the 12th year of his Reign Procl 12 Jac. he declares That it was the Right of his Subjects to make their immediate Addresses to him by Petition and in the 19th year of his Reign he invites his Subjects to it And in the 20th year of his Reign Procl Dat. 10 July 19. Jac. Procl Dat. 14. Feb. 20. Jac. he tells his People that his own and the Ears of his Privy Council did still continue open to the just Complaints of his People and that they were not confined to Times and Meetings in Parliament nor restrained to particular Grievances not doubting but that his loving Subjects would apply themselves to his Majesty for Relief to the utter abolishing of all those private whisperings and causless Rumors which without giving his Majesty any Opportunity of Reformation by particular knowledge of any Fault serve to no other purpose but to occasion and blow abroad Discontentment It appears Lords Journ Anno 1640. that the House of Lords both Spiritual and Temporal Nemine contradicente Voted Thanks to those Lords who Petitioned the King at York to call a Parliament And the King by his Declaration Printed in the same year Declar. 1644. declares his Royal Will and Pleasure That all his Loving Subjects who have any just cause to present or complain of any Grievances or Oppressions may freely Address themselves by their humble Petitions to his Sacred Majesty who will graciously hear their Complaints Since his Majesty's happy Restauration Temp. Car. 2. the Inhabitants of the County of Bucks made a Petition That their County might not be over-run by the Kings Deer and the same was done by the County of Surry on the same Occasion 'T is time for me to conclude your trouble I suppose you do no longer doubt but that you may joyn in Petition for a Parliament since you see it has been often done heretofore nor need you fear how many of your honest Countreymen joyn with you since you hear of Petitions by the whole Body of the Realm and since you see both by the Opinions of our Lawyers by the Doctrine of our Church and by the Declarations of our Kings That it is our undoubted Right to Petition Nothing can be more absurd than to say That the number of the Supplicants makes an innocent Petition an Offence on the contrary if in a thing of this Publick concernment a few only should address themselves to the King it would be a thing in it self ridiculous the great end of such Addresses being to acquaint him with the general desires of his People which can never be done unless multitudes joyn How can the Complaints of the diffusive Body of the Realm reach his Majesty's Ears in the absence of a Parliament but in the actual concurrence of every individual Person in Petition for the personal application of multitudes is indeed unlawful and dangerous Give me leave since the Gazette runs so much in your mind Stat. 13. Car. 2. c. 5. to tell you as I may modestly enough do since the Statute directs me what answer the Judges would now give if such another Case were put to them as was put to the Judges 2 Jacobi Suppose the Nonconformists at this day as the Puritans then did should sollicite the getting of the hands of Multitudes to a Petition to the King for suspending the Execution of the Penal Laws against themselves the present Judges would not tell you that this was an Offence next to Treason or Felony nor that the Offenders were to be brought to the Council-board to be punished but they would tell you plainly and distinctly That if the hands of more Persons than twenty were solicited or procured to such a Petition and the Offenders were convicted upon the Evidence of two or more credible Witnesses upon a Prosecution in the Kings-bench or at the Assizes or Quarter Sessions within six Months they would incur a Penalty not exceeding a 100 l. and three Months Imprisonment because their Petition was to change a matter establisht by Law But I am sure you are a better Logician than not to see the difference which the Statute makes between such a Petition which is to alter a thing establisht by Law and an innocent and humble Petition That a Parliament may meet according to Law in a time when the greatest Dangers hang over the King the Church and the State The Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftsbury 's Speech in the House of Lords March 25. 1679. My Lords YOU are appointing of the Consideration of the State of England to be taken up in a Committee of the whole House some day next Week I do not know how well what I have to say may be received for I never study either to make my Court well or to be Popular I always speak what I am commanded by the Dictates of the Spirit within me There are some other Considerations that concern England so nearly that without them you will come far short of Safety and Quiet at Home We have a little Sister and she hath no Breasts what shall we do for our Sister in the day when she shall be spoken for If she be a Wall we will build on her a Palace of Silver if she be a Door we will inclose her with Boards of Cedar We have several little Sisters without Breasts the French Protestant Churches the two Kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland The Foreign Protestants are a Wall the only Wall and Defence to England upon it you may build Palaces of Silver glorious Palaces The Protection of the Protestants abroad is the greatest Power and Security the Crown of England can attain to and which can only help us to give Check to the growing Greatness of France Scotland and Ireland are two Doors either to let in Good or Mischief upon us they are much weakened by the Artifice of our cunning Enemies and we ought to inclose them with Boards of Cedar Popery and Slavery like two Sisters go hand in hand sometimes one goes first sometimes the other in a doors but the other is always following close at hand In England Popery was to have brought in Slavery in Scotland Slavery went before and Popery was to follow I do not think your Lordships or the Parliament have Jurisdiction there It is a Noble and Ancient Kingdom they have an illustrious Nobility a Gallant Gentry a Learned Clergy and an Understanding Worthy People but yet we cannot think of England as we ought without reflecting on the Condition therein They are under the same Prince and the Influence of the same Favourites and Councils when they are hardly dealt with can we that are the Richer expect better usage for 't is
King make unto him certain propositions for taking away some heavy Taxes that had been imposed on them by his Father Solomon which he refusing to gratifie them in and following the Advice of Young Men Ten of the twelve Tribes immediately chose Jeroboam a Servant of Rehoboham's a meer Stanger and of mean Parentage and made him their King and God approved thereof as the Scriptures in express Words do testifie For when Rehoboam had raised an Army of One hundred and fourscore thousand Men intending by force of Arms to have justified his Claim God appeared unto Semaiah and commanded him to go to Rehoboam and to the House of Jadah and Benjamin saying Return every man to his house for this thing is of me saith the Lord. So that since God did permit and allow this in his own Commonwealth which was to be the Pattern for all others no doubt he will approve the same in other Kingdoms whenever his Service and Glory or the Happiness of the Weal-publick shall require it The next instance I shall give you shall be in Spain where Don Alonso de la Cerda having been admitted Prince of Spain in his Father's Life-time according to the Custom of that Realm married Blanoha Daughter of Lewis the First King of France and had by her two Sons Named Alonso and Hernando de la Cerda but their Father who was only Prince dying before Alonso the Ninth then King he recommended them to the Realm as lawful Heirs apparent to the Crown But Don Sancho their Fathers Younger Brother who was a great Warrier and Sirnamed El Bravo was admitted Prince and they put by in their Grandfathers Life-time by his and the States Consent and this was done at a Parliament held at Sagovia in the Year 1276. And in the Year 1284 Alonso the Ninth being dead Don Sancho was aknowledg'd King and the Two Princes Imprisoned but at the Mediation of Philip the Third King of France their Unkle they were set free and Endowed with considerable Revenues in Land and from them do descend the Dukes De Medina Celi at this Day and the present King of Spain that is in Possession descendeth from Don Sancho In France Lewis the Fourth had Two Sons Lothairin who succeeded him and Charles whom he made Duke of Lorrain Lothairin dying left an only Son named Lewis who dying without Issue after he had reigned Two Years the Crown was to have descended on his Unkle Charles Duke of Lorrain But the States of France did exclude him and chose Hugo Capetus Earl of Paris for their King and in an Oration made by their Embassadour to Charles of Lorrain did give an Account of their Reasons for so doing as it is related by Belforest a French Historian in these very words Every Man knoweth Lord Charles that the Sucession of the Crown and Kingdom of France according to the ordinary Rights and Laws of the same belongeth unto you and not unto Hugh Capet now our King But yet the same Laws which do give unto you such Right of Succession do judge you also unworthy of the same for that you have not endeavoured hitherto to frame your Life according to the Prescript of those Laws nor according to the Use and Custom of the Kingdom of France but rather have allied your self with the Germans our old Enemies and have accustomed your self to their vile and base Manners Wherefore since you have abandoned and forsaken the ancient Virtue Amity and Sweetness of your Countrey your Countrey has also abandoned and forsaken you for we have chosen Hugh Capet for our King and have put you by and this without any Scruple in our Consciences at all esteeming it for better and more just to live under Hugh Capet the possessor of the Crown with enjoying the ancient use of our Laws Customs Privileges and Liberties than under you the next Heir by Blood in Oppressions strange Customs and Cruelty For as they who are to make a Voyage in a Ship on a dangerous Sea do not so much respect whether the Pilot claims Title to the Ship or no but rather whether he be skilful valiant and like to bring them in safety to their ways end even so our principal care is to have a good Prince to lead and guide us happily in this way of Civil and Politick Life which is the end for which Princes are appointed And with this Message ended his Succession and Life he dying not long after in Prison And now I shall come home and give you an Instance or two in England since the Conquest and so conclude William Rufus second Son of William the Conqueror by the assistance of Lanfrank Archbishop of Canterbury who had a great opinion of his Virtue and Probity was admitted King by the consent of the Realm his elder Brother Robert Duke of Normandy being then in the War at Jerusalem William dying his younger Brother Henry by his ingenuity and fair carriage and by the assistance of Henry Earl of Warwick who had greatest interest in the Nobility and Maurice Bishop of London a leading-man amongst the Clergy obtained also the Crown And Robert Duke of Normandy was a second time excluded And though this King Henry could pretend no other Title to the Crown than the Election and Admission of the Realm yet he defended it so well and God prosper'd him with success that when his elder Brother Robert came to claim the Kingdom by force of Arms he beat him in a pitch'd-Battel took him Prisoner and so he died miserable in Bonds King Henry had one only Daughter named Maud or Matilda who was married to the Emperor and he dying without Issue she was afterwards married to Geofry Plantagenet Earl of Anjou in France by whom she had a Son named Henry whom his Grandfather declared Heir-apparent to the Crown in his Life-time yet after his Death Henry was excluded and Stephen Earl of Bulloine Son of Adela Daughter of William the Conqueror was by the States thought more fit to Govern than Prince Henry who was then but a Child And this was done by the perswasion of Henry Bishop of Winchester and at the solicitation of the Abbot of Glastenbury and others who thought they might do the same lawfully and with a good Conscience for the publick Good of the Realm But the Event did not prove so well as they intended for this occasioned great Factions and Divisions in the Kingdom for the quieting of which there was a Parliament held at Wallingford which passed a Law That Stephen should be King only during his Life and that Prince Henry and his Off-spring should succeed him and by the same Law debarred William Son of King Stephen from inheriting the Crown and only made him Earl of Norfolk Thus did the Parliament dispose of the Crown in those days which was in the year 1153 which sufficiently proves what I have asserted The sum of all I have said amounts to this That Government in general is by the Law of
Nature and consequently the Ordinance of God but that the different forms of Government whether to reside in One Few or Many or whether it shall be continued by Succession or by Election together with the different measures and limitations of Power and Authority in Governours of the same kind in several Countries all these things I say are ordained by and purely depend upon positive and humane Laws From whence it will necessarily follow That the same human Authority residing in King Lords and Commons here in England which gave Being to those Laws for the good of the Community is Superintendent over them and both may and ought to make any Addition to or Alteration of them when the publick Good and Welfare of the Nation shall require it unless you will admit That an Human Authority establishing any thing intentionally for the common good of the Society which in tract of time by reason of unforeseen circumstances and emergencies proves destructive of it has by that Act concluded it self and made that accidental Evil moral and unchangeable which to affirm is sensless and repugnant And now Sir I hope by this time said the old Gentleman you begin to think that the Bill for disabling the Duke was not so unjust and unreasonable as was pretended and that the course of Succession being founded upon the same bottom with other Civil Constitutions might likewise as justly have been altered by the King Lords and Commons as any other Law or Custom whatever And here I might conclude but because a late Pensionary Pen has publickly arraign'd the Wisdom Loyalty and Justice of the Honourable House of Commons on the account of this Bill I will ex abundanti add a word or two more to that particular Whereupon he pluck'd a Paper out of his Pocket entituled Great and weighty Considerations relating to the Duke and Successor of the Crown c. Which as soon as he had read unto us You see here said he the true Temper of those men of whom I first gave you caution There never was an Endeavour though in a Legal and Parliamentary way after any Reformation either in Church or State but the Promoters of it were sure to be branded by them with the odious imputations of Fanaticism and Faction Nay if the Country-Electors of Parliament-men will not pitch upon such Rake-hells of the Nation as are usually proposed by them but on the contrary make use of their Freedom and Consciences in chusing able upright and deserving persons and if good men thus chosen do but according to their Duty in the House enquire into publick Grievances pursue in a legal course notorious Offenders and consult and advise the Security of the Government and Protestant Religion the high Church-man immediately swells and in a passion tells you That all this proceeds from the old Phanatick Leven not yet worn out amongst the People That we are going back again to Forty One and acting over afresh the Sins of our Forefathers Thus ignorantly do they complement the Times and Persons they endeavour to expose by appropriating to them such Virtues as were common to good men in all Ages But enough of this In the next place pray observe how hypocritically the Considerer puts this Question viz. Whether Protestant Religion was not settled in this Nation by the same mighty hand of God that establish'd Jeroboam in the Kingdom of Israel And then adds Whether we like that wicked King should so far despair of God's Providence in preserving the work of his own Hands as never to think it safe unless it be establish'd on the Quick-sands of our own wicked Inventions viz. the Bill against the Duke And throughout his whole Discourse he frequently calls all Care of preserving our Religion a Mistrust of God's Providence and on that score calls out to the Nation O ye of little Faith c. Now I will allow him That the least Evil is not to be done that the greatest and most important Good may ensue But that the Bill for disabling the Duke is highly justifiable both by the Laws of God and Constitution of our Government I think by my former Discourse I have left no room to doubt And the Considerer having scarce attempted to prove the contrary it 's preposterously done of him to give us his Use of Reproof before he has clear'd his Doctrine However I owe him many thanks for putting me in mind how Protestant Religion was first establish'd here in England it was indeed by the mighty Hand of God influencing the publick Councils of the Nation so that all imaginable care was taken both by Prince and People to rescue themselves from under the Romish Yoke and accordingly most excellent Laws were made against the usurpation and tyranny of that Man of Sin Our noble Ancestors in those days did not palliate a want of Zeal for their Religion with a lazy pretence of trusting in God's Providence but together with their Prayers to and Affiance in Heaven they joyned the Acts of their own Duty without which they very well knew they had no reason to expect a Blessing from it But now be pleased to take notice of the Candor of this worthy Considerer nothing less will serve his turn than the proving all the Voters for the Bill guilty of the highest Perjury For says he they have all sworn in the Oath of Allegiance to bear Faith and true Allegiance to His Majesty his Heirs and Successors but the Duke is Heir ergo c. A very hopeful Argument indeed But what if it should happen as it is neither impossible nor very improbable to imagin it that the next Heir to the Crown should commit Treason and conspire the Death of the present Possessor and for this Treason should not only be attainded by Parliament but executed too Pray Mr. Considerer would the Parliament in this case be guilty of Murder and Perjury I am confident you will not say it If therefore the next Heir become obnoxious to the Government in a lower degree why may not the same Authority proportion the Punishment and leave him his Life but debar him of the Succession This I say only to shew the absurdity of his Argument My Answer is this No man can bear Allegiance to two persons at the same time nor can Allegiance be ever due to a Subject and therefore my Obligation by the word Heir in the Oath does not commence till such Heir has a present Right to or actual Possession of the Crown which if he never attains either by reason of Death or any other Act that incapacitates and bars him then can my Obligation to him by the word Heir in the Oath never have a beginning But besides all this it cannot be denied but Mr. Considerer's Doctrine does bring great Inconveniences on Succession for the next Heir by his way of arguing is let loose from all the Restrictions and Penalties of Humane Laws and has no other tyes upon him not to snatch the Crown
keeping Watch since the Plot hath cost the City above 100000 l. The City of London is the Bulwark of our Religion And is it not said the Duke is at the head of 30 or 40000 men The Lieutenancy and Justices how are they molded for his turn And if you do nothing now in this House we must all without any more ado try to make a Peace with him as well as we can I 'll never do it And will you for the sake of one man destroy three Kingdoms An Highth He moved that the Representation might declare That we see no Security but removing the Duke of York A Ninth We discoursing of Tangier at this time is like Nero's Fiddling whilst Rome was consuming by Fire If it be in a good condition we cannot help it if in a bad one we are not in a posture to do it Pray consider the condition by what 's past when King Henry the Eighth was for Supremacy the Kingdom was for it when King Henry the Eighth was against it the Kingdom was against it When King Edward the Sixth was a Protestant the Kingdom was so when Queen Mary was a Papist the Kingdom was so when Queen Elizabeth was a Protestant the Kingdom so again Regis ad exemplum c. And I believe even in King Edward the Sixth's time the Bishops themselves would not have been for throwing out such a Bill as this And if King Edward had promised any thing for the preservation of the Protestant Religion so that Mary might succeed the Pope would no way have contrived so great a Favour The bidding us prevent Popery and the letting alone a Popish Successor is as if a Physician should come to a man in a Pleurisie and tell him he may make use of any Remedies but letting of Blood the Party must perish that being the only Cure I am not at present for giving of Money that being to the State as Food to the Stomach if that be clean meat turns to good Nourishment but if it be out of order it breeds Diseases And so it is in the State if that be not in order too We have been often deceived and by the same men again Was not 200000 l. given for the Fleet in 74 and was any of it employed that way Money given for an actual War with France employed for a dishonourable Peace Never so many Admirals and so few Ships to guard us never more Commissioners of the Treasury and so little Money never so many Counsellors and so little Safety Let us address His Majesty A Tenth I 'll never be for giving of Money for promoting Popery and a Successor a publick Enemy to the Kingdom and a Slave to the Pope Whilst he hath 11 to 7 in the Council and 63 to 31 in the House of Lords we are not secure And if my own Father had been one of the 63 I should have voted him an Enemy to the King and Kingdoms and if we cannot live Protestants I hope we shall dye so The Eleventh Redress our Grievances first and then and not till then Money Tangier never was nor will be a place of Trade Tituan and Sally so near they will never trade with us to destroy themselves and can never be for our Advantage And I have many years wonder'd at the Council that have been for the keeping of it and am of opinion that Popery may be aimed at by it and that our Councils are managed at Rome from whence I saw a Letter from a Friend dated the 21th of October with the Heads of the King's Speech in it to this effect That His Majesty would command them not to meddle with the Succession That he would ask no Money That he would stand upon the Confirmation of the Lord Danby's Pardon and That the keeping of Tangier was to draw on Expences and was it not would be for the blowing of it up Twelfth I am for a Representation Thirteenth I remember before the last Session of Parliament there was a Council held at Lambeth and there hatched a Bill against Popery It was for the breeding of Children of a Popish Successor which admitted the thing and it was called a Bill against Popery but we called it the Popish Bill I am for the Church of England but not for the Church-men of the late Bishop of St. Asaph on his Death-bed good man could hardly forbear declaring himself which his Epitaph did Ora pro Anima ordered to be written upon his Tomb. We are told the other day we ought to make the Duke a Substantive to stand by himself That there was less danger of a General without an Army than an Army without a General And I have read in Pliny which was most to be feared an Army of Lyons with an Hare to their General or an Army of Hares with a Lyon to their General and it was concluded that an Army of Hares with a Lyon to their General was most to be feared of the two His Majesty is inclosed by a sort of Monsters who endeavour to destroy and I hope to move against them before we rise and though we have lost our last Bill we have not lost our Courage and Hearts Fourteenth His Majesty desires your Advice and Assistance it is seldom which is very kind and though you shall think fit not to give the latter it 's but mannerly to give the first And I hope you will not resent any Injury if any there were done by the House of Lords on the King who though he cannot cure all ill in one day he can ruine all And I acquaint you there is a very great Weight laid upon this Session of Parliament and upon the agreeing of the King with the People on which depends the Welfare of the Protestants abroad and hope you will not go about to Remonstrate now Fifteenth If you had sent the Duke's Lord Craven's and Mulgrave's Regiment to Tangier it would supply the Place with Men and Disband the Lord Oxford's Regiment and the Money on those imployed would bear much of the share of this Then the House Resolved to appoint a Committee to draw up an Address upon the Debate of this House to represent His Majesty the State and Condition of the Kingdom in Answer to His Majesties Message about Tangier The SPEECHES of several Learned and Worthy Members of the Honourable House of Commons for Passing the Bill against the Duke of York Mr. Speaker THE Gentleman that spoke last seems to intimate that we ought to have a due regard to the Kings Brother and consider what infinite disadvantages will accrew to us if we are too hasty in our Resolutions as before the Duke is found guilty to proceed to pass a Bill for Exclusion for that nothing but War and Bloodshed can be expected from it therefore he says we ought to be moderate and find out a Medium to secure the Protestant Religion notwithstanding the Duke may be a Papist Now Gentlemen I give you the Dictates of my
Gentleman answered Mr. Speaker I wonder that Noble Lord should thus interrupt me for I have not positively affirmed any thing at all of the Duke though I have said nothing but what in my Judgment I thought might be truth and I shall not change my mind for his being displeased at it but however I am very well satisfied to say no more but only that I remember that Honourable Person by the Bar told us he would not speak to the prudential part against the Bill and truly Sir I think he has kept his Word very exactly and that whereas another Member before him objected That it was possible the Duke might turn Protestant I would only answer that I do not think it possible that any Person that has been bred up in the Protestant Religion and hath been weak enough for so I must call it to turn Papist should ever after in that respect be wise enough to turn Protestant and therefore Sir upon the whole matter my humble Motion is That the Bill may pass Debates in the House of Commons Jan. 7. 1680. upon His Majesties Message The First Speech by an Honourable Gentleman HIS Majesties relies not only on the Dictates of his own Judgment but is confirmed by the Judgment of the House of Lords but many of them have gained their Honour by Interest rather than Merit His Majesty hath given no Answer to several of your Addresses when you say nothing can secure you but this Bill that he should propose other means but if we have not the Bill we are deprived of the means to preserve His Majesties Life Person and Government I never knew that Tangier was more considerable than all the Three Kingdoms Is it time to be silent or not Why is all this stir for a Man that desires the Throne before His Majesty is dead He is in all the Plot either at one end or other who took evidence of London Fire Arbitrary Power was at the end and no Religion like Popery to set up That I will pay the Duty and Allegiance of an English-man to an English Prince But Popery and Arbitrary Power must be rooted out Can you hope for any Good while this Man is Heir an Apostate from his Religion his Government is the most dangerous Our Ministers of State give us little hopes from Whitehall I hope they will be Named First set a Brand on all them that framed the Answer and all them that shall lend Money by way of Anticipation desire him to take Advice of His Parliament rather then private Men or to let us go home and attend His Service when he shall again call for us The Second Speech by another Person of Hour I am afraid we are lost we have done our Parts shewed our selves good Subjects but some stand between the King and us to promote the Duke of York's Interest Those that advised the King not to pass the Bill deserve to be Branded The Third Speech by an Honourable Gentleman We have made the modestest Request that ever People did in such a time of Danger we have neither passed a Bill nor obtained a kind Answer our Trust must be in our Votes When the King bid us look into the Plot like well-meaning Countrey-Gentlemen we looked into the Tower we should have looked into Whitehall There the Plot is hatched cherished and brought up It would be well if all against the Bill were put out of Councel and all of this House were put out of Commission that were for it I had rather the Moors had Tangier the French King Flanders than the Pope had Eugland The Fourth Speech by a Person of Honour I think the Debate is upon a Message from the King and the most especial part is about the Bill I concur with that Noble Person rather than with all the rest But begin with the first his Majesty hath suffered us twice to address upon the Bill yet the Lords have not admitted one Conference I believe every man came unwillingly into this Bill have any that were against it proposed any thing for our Security if they will let them stand up and I will sit down I have advised with Men that know the Laws Religion and Government they say if you will preserve this Government this Law this Bill must pass We have received no expedient from the Lords the State of the Nation lies at their Door they sit to hear Causes they mind you of Mr. Seymour but say nothing of the Bills In Richard the Second his Time some Lords were said to be Lords in the King's Pocket but had no shoulders to support him It 's plain our evil comes from evil Ministers There are some that will have a Prince of one Religion on the Throne to rule the People of another a Popish Prince and a Protestant Kingdom will any Ministers of parts unless they have an indifferency of Religion think this consistent I dedicate my Allegiance to the King they to another Person so the Kingdom must be destroy'd either this limited Monarchy must stand or come to Blood on the other side Water-Monarchy is absolutely supported by little men of no Fortune and he that takes mean and low men to make Ministers of sets up for Popery and Arbitrary Government The King hath Counsels born if you have a Popish Prince and a Protestant Parliament will the King ever concur with them in matters of Religion and Property are not your Estates sprinkled with Abbey-Lands If he asks Money will you trust him must Foreigners comply with a Prince that in effect hath no People We must be overcome with France and Popery or the Body will get a new Head or the Head a new Body The Fifth Speech by a Person of Honour The House was unwilling at first to enter into a Debate about Expedients and I am not prepared to propound them any thing you have heard proposed by the King in Print if you had them they will do you no harm One day you say the King had been a good Prince if he had good Company and good Councils no great Complement to the King he offers you any thing but the Bill I humbly make my motion to try it The Sixth Speech by an Honourable Gentleman I think it becomes that Gentleman very well to be of the Opinion he is though no man else in this House I wish the D. was of that Opinion his Father desired him The Lords rejected the Bill but I am afraid the King solicited or else they would not it 's some mens interest to be for the D. but while they are at Court we shall never have it Foreign Persons have given Influence at Court the French Ministers access to Court inclines me to believe some body is paid for it The Court is a Nurcery of Vice they transmit them into the Countrey and none but such men are imployed The Seventh Speech by an Honourable Gentleman The Question now before you is Whether any other means be effectual
besides the Bill I have heard none proposed in this Parliament the last Parliament thought not fit to debate them they were so weak but hath this Plot been no longer than 1678. We gave 250000 l. to fight the Dutch and assist them that had a Design to subdue us and the Protestant Religion which is not well settled Have all the Laws been put in Execution against the Papists But a few Apprentices going to pull down a Bawdy-house with a Red Cloth on a Pole was made Treason but what hath been done with the Plot in the intervals of Parliament The Lords have confirmed the King in his Opinion but did not the Proviso for the D. come from the Lords House I believe the Lords do not fear him but I believe the Plot is more dangerous than ever To rely upon any Remedy but this Bill will expose your Selves and your Religion The Eighth Speech by an Honourable Gentleman You have heard several Propositions but first make an end of one It is long since we thought in this House we were not secure without the Bill some have not yet considered of it and I think we never shall To make an Act of Association against the D. is to say Let him be lawful King and then fight against him Another way is Banishment if it be during the Kings life truly you run into more dangers rather then remove them if you talk of Banishment during the D. Life that is Exclusion if the D. be a Papist exclude all Papists from inheriting Some talk of an Act pass they would not satisfie their Consciences I am sure a Vote to Exclude him will not Popery encreases upon hopes the D. may come to the Crown we ought to take care of this Presumption Will not Papists expect to have their Religion established when the D. is next I wonder men will pretend to plead for Loyalty to one that they may never come to use it some say Cannot the D. change his Religion Must not the Two Houses joyn Did not Queen Mary do it Regis ad Exemplum most will conform To make Arguments of this Bill is to lessen it the King bids you go on to other things let 's declare all other things are ineffectual without this Bill We cannot think our selves safe to rely on any thing else is not only insufficient but dangerous The Ninth Speech by an Honourable Gentleman Now I see the House is full so considerate I am bound to give my Thoughts The Reason the Verity of the Bill hath formerly been debated and Precedents are Printed to shew it hath been done It will be a Reproach to us when dead in our Graves if we do not whatever any Parliament did to preserve Religion When we received the Kings Message I was perswaded he was over-ruled by other men for he saith What shall come in a Parliamentary Way how comes the King to know what 's done in Parliament When Clifford set up bare-fac'd for Popery he brought the King to come frequently to the House of Lords Cranmer saith That King Henry the Eighth passed the Act of 6 Articles in an Un-Parliamentary way by the Kings coming and solliciting Henry the Fourth in a Record called The Indempnity of the Peers and Commons the King being in haste for Money sends a Message desires he may debate the matter with them they return Answer Parliaments ought to debate free It 's entred into the Rolls That the King shall neither come to one House or other Danby's solliciting could not move them the King comes and he prevails Some Lords have little Estates some little Consciences some less Religion The King calls it an Opinion and tells you he is confirmed in it by the House of Lords he may come to take up other Resolutions if the Parliament go away and leave this work undone The King is in the highest Danger though some men think they shall be accounted Loyal for opposing an Act of Parliament it is but a Nick-name King James in his Speech 1603 thought it his Security to comply with his Parliament Nay He would betray his Country and Posterity in not doing it Remember what care the last King took to have his Posterity maintain the Protestant Religion Remember Queen Mary broke her Word for Conscience sake every day a Security would draw me from the Bill Queen Elizabeths Association against the Queen of Scots in the Act of Parliament was an Exclusion she was but a Woman but had wise Counsellors Prelates then did not fear the frown of a Prince Surely when the King sees so many Gentlemen of this House so firm he will take their Advise and Prorogue them and then pass the Bill I find not a Man that hath understanding but saith We are undone without it We have not Compounded yet for our Throats as some at Whitehall have done there is no next best the only way to preserve the Protestant Religion is to pass the Bill what is as secure as this must be amounting to Exclusion We can't save his Personal Dignity but with the loss of our Laws and Lives too I would to God the King knew how well this House doth love him The Tenth Speech by an Honourable Gentleman Consider whether the Dis-inheriting of a lawful Prince be Injustice or not or whether we ought not rather to trust to the Providence of Almighty God The Eleventh Speech by an Honourable Gentleman I should be glad the last Gentleman would make it good that we are to trust to the Providence of Almighty God rather than do as he supposes an unlawful Act but can he prove it unlawful can the King Lords and Commons do an unlawful Act must we not have a Supream Power But to hint it to something is to say it is not Supream was there not Machinations every year against Queen Elizabeth but she took away the Scotch Queen I wonder we have this Answer till I consider who is at the Kings Ear and have had an Interest carried on so long The denial of this is the denial of every thing you see where there are divers Medicines yet but one conducing to the end you shall have a Popish King if that be allowed with Power to compel and corrupt you you shall have what you will to protect you but you shall be under the power of one to destroy you The Frogs must have a Government but they must have a Stork for their King Samson's Locks will be grown again by that time he comes in There is a Lion in the Lobby keep him out say I no says some open the Door we will chain him when he 's come in Would you have a King that would neither court you nor protect you you would have a Parliament to make Judges and Bishops then sure the Long-House will be Jure divino you can have no Security under the Copes of Heaven without this Bill A Copy of the Duke of YORK 's Bill WHereas James Duke of York is notoriously known
of that Town 2. Your Subjects are sometimes upon slight and sometimes upon no grounds imprisoned and often kept Prisoners many Months and years nothing being objected to them and are required to enter themselves Prisoners which is contrary to Law It was in the former Article expressed that many of these Persons declared incapable of publick Trust did also suffer Imprisonment and besides these instances Lieutenant General Drummond whose eminent Loyalty and great Services are well known to your Majesty was required to enter himself Prisoner in the Castle of Dunbarton where he was kept one year and a half and was made a close Prisoner for nine months of that time and yet nothing was ever objected to him to this day to justifie that Usage The Lord Cardross was for his Ladies keeping two Conventicles in her own House at which he was not present fined 110 l. and hath now been kept prisoner four years in the Castle of Edenburg where he still remains although he hath often petitioned for his Liberty and Sir Patrick Holme hath been now a second time almost one year and nothing is yet laid to his charge Besides these illegal Imprisonments the Officers of your Majesties Forces frequently carry Warrants with them for apprehending persons that are under no legal Censure nor have been so much as cited to appear which hath put many of your Subjects under great fears especially upon what was done in Council three years ago Captain Carstairs a man now well enough known to your Majesty did intrap one Kirkton an outed Minister into his Chamber at Edenburgh and did violently abuse him and designed to have extorted some money from him The noise of this coming to the Ears of one Baily Brother-in-law to the said Kirkton he came to the house and hearing him cry Murder Murder forced open the Chamber door where he found his Brother-in-law and the Captain grapling the Captain pretended to have a Warrant against Kirkton and Baily desired him to shew it and promised that all obedience should be given to it But the Captain refusing to do it Kirkton was rescued This was only delivering a man from the hands of a Robber which Nature obligeth all men to do especially when joyned with so near a Relation The Captain complained of this to the Council and the Lord Hatton with others were appointed to examine the Witnesses And when it was brought before the Council the Duke of Hamilton Earls of Mereton Dumfrize and Kinkarden the Lord Cocheren and Sir Archibald Primrose then Lord Register desired that the Report of the Examination might be read but that not serving their ends was denyed And thereupon those Lords delivered their Opinion that fithence Carstares did not shew any Warrant nor was cloathed with any publick Character it was no opposing of your Majesties Authority in Baily so to rescue the said Kirkton yet Baily was for this fined in 6000. Marks and kept long a Prisoner Those Lords were upon that so represented to your Majesty that by the Duke of Lauderdale's procurement they were turned out of the Council and all command of the Militia And it can be made appear that the Captain had at that time no Warrant at all against Kirkton but procured it after the Violence committed And it was ante-dated on design to serve a turn at that time This manner of Proceedings hath ever since put your subjects under sad apprehensions There is one particular further offered to your Majesties consideration concerning their way of using Prisoners There were 14 men taken at a Field Conventicle who without being legally Convict of that or any other crimes were secretly and in the night taken out of Prison upon a Warrant signed by the Earl of Lynlythgo and the Lord Hatton and Collington and were delivered to Captain Maytland who had been Page to the Duke of Lauderdale but was then a French Officer and was making his Levies in Scotland and were carryed over to the service of the French King in the year 1676. 3. The Council hath upon many occasions proceeded to most unreasonable and Arbitrary Fines either for slight offences or for offences where the Fine is regulated by Law which they have never considered when the persons were not acceptable to them So the Lord Cardross was Fined in 1111 l. for his Ladies keeping two Conventicles in his house and Christning a Child by an outed Minister without his knowledge The Provost formerly mentioned and Baily with many more were also fined without any regard to Law The Council hath at several times proceeded to the taking of Gentlemens Dwelling-houses from them and putting Garrisons in them which in time of peace is contrary to Law In the year 75. It was designed against twelve of your Majesties Subjects and was put in Execution in the houses of the Earl of Calender the Lord Cardrosse the Lady Lumsden c. and was again attempted in the year 78. the Houses belonging to the Leirds of Cosnock Blagan and Rowal and were possessed by Souldiers and declared Garrisons Nor did it rest there but Orders were sent from the Council requiring the Countries about those Houses to furnish them for the Souldiers use and to supply them with necessaries much contrary to Law It was against this that Sir Patrick Holme came to desire a remedy and common Justice being denied him he used a legal Protestation in the ordinary Form of Law and was thereupon kept for many Months a Prisoner and declared incapable of all publick trust c. There is another particular which because it is so odious is unwillingly touched yet it is necessary to inform your Majesty about it for thereby it will appear that the Duke of Lauderdale and his Brother have in a most solemn manner broken the publick faith that was given in your Majesties name One Mitchel being put in Prison upon great suspicion of his having attempted to murder the late Arch Bishop of St. Andrews and there being no Evidence against him Warrant was given by the Duke of Lauderdale then your Majesties Commissioner and your Council to promise him his life if he would confess Whereupon he did confess and yet some years after that person who indeed deserved many deaths if there had been any other Evidence against him was upon that confession convicted of the Crime and the Duke of Lauderdale and his Brother being put to it by him did swear that they never gave or knew of any assurance of life given him And when it was objected that the promise was upon Record in the Council books the Duke of Lauderdale did in open Court where he was present only as a Witness and so ought to have been silent threaten them if they should proceed to the Examination of that Act of Council which as he then said might infer perjury on them that swore and so did cut off the proof of that defence which had been admitted by the Court as good in Law and sufficient to save the Prisoner if
being accompanied with several other Lords at the Delivery thereof thus expressed himself The Earl of Essex's Speech at the Delivering the following Petition to His most Sacred Majesty Jan. 25. 1680. May it please your Majesty THe Lords here present together with divers other Peers of the Realm taking notice that by Your late Proclamation Your Majesty has declared an intention of calling a Parliament at Oxford and observing from History and Records how unfortunate many Assemblies have been when called at a Place remote from the Capital City as particularly the Congress in Henry the Second's time at Clarendon Three several Parliaments at Oxford in Henry the Third's time and at Coventry in Henry the Sixth's time With divers others which have proved very fatal to those Kings and have been followed with great mischief on the whole Kingdom And considering the present posture of affairs the many jealousies and discontents which are amongst the People We have great Cause to apprehend that the consequences of a Parliament now at Oxford may be as fatal to Your Majesty and the Nation as those others mentioned have been to the then Reigning Kings and therefore we do conceive that we cannot answer it to God to Your Majesty or to the People If we being Peers of the Realm should not on so Important an Occasion humbly offer our advice to Your Majesty that if possible Your Majesty may be prevailed with to alter this as we apprehend unseasonable Resolution The Grounds and Reasons of our Opinion are contained in this our Petition which We humbly Present to Your Majesty To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition and Advice of the Lords under-named Peers of the Realm Humbly Sheweth THat whereas Your Majesty hath been pleased by divers Speeches and Messages to Your Houses of Parliament rightly to represent to them the Dangers that Threatned Your Majesty's Person and the whole Kingdom from the Mischievous and wicked Plots of the Papists and the sudden Growth of a Foreign Power unto which no stop or remedy could be Provided unless it were by Parliament and an Union of Your Majesty's Protestant Subjects in one Mind and one Interest And the Lord Chancellor in Pursuance of Your Majesty's Commands having more at large Demonstrated the said Dangers to be as great as we in the midst of our Fears could Imagine them and so pressing that our Liberties Religion Lives and the whole Kingdom would be certainly Lost if a speedy Provision were not made against them And Your Majesty on the 21st of April 1679. Having called unto your Council many Honourable and Worthy Persons and declared to them and the whole Kingdom That being sensible of the evil Effects of a single Ministry or private Advice or Forreign Committee for the General Direction of your Affairs Your Majesty would for the future Refer all things unto that Council and by the constant Advice of them together with the frequent use of your great Council the Parliament Your Majesty was hereafter Resolved to Govern the Kingdoms We began to hope we should see an end of our Miseries But to our unspeakable Grief and Sorrow we soon found our Expectations Frustrated The Parliament then subsisting was Prorogued and Dissolved before it could perfect what was intended for our Relief and Security and though another was thereupon called yet by many Prorogations it was put off till the 21st of October past and notwithstanding Your Majesty was then again pleased to acknowledge that neither Your Person nor Your Kingdom could be safe till the matter of the Plot was gone thorow It was unexpectedly Prorogued on the 10th of this Month before any sufficient Order could be taken therein all their Just and Pious Endeavours to save the Nation were overthrown the good Bills they had been Industriously preparing to Unite all Your Majesties Protestant Subjects brought to nought The discovery of the Irish Plot stifled The Witnesses that came in frequently more fully to declare That both of England and Ireland discouraged Those Forreign Kingdoms and States who by a happy conjunction with us might give a Check to the French Power disheartned even to such a Despair of their own Security against the growing greatness of that Monarch as we fear may induce them to take new Resolutions and perhaps such as may be fatal to us The Strength and Courage of our Enemies both at home and abroad increased and our selves left in the utmost danger of seeing our Country brought into utter Desolation In these Extremities we had nothing under God to comfort us but the Hopes that Your Majesty being touched with the Groans of Your perishing People would have suffered Your Parliament to meet at the Day unto which it was Prorogued and that no further interruption should have been given to their Proceedings in Order to their saving of the Nation But that failed us too For then we heard that Your Majesty by the private suggestion of some Wicked Persons Favourers of Popery Promoters of French Designs and Enemies to Your Majesty and the Kingdom without the Advice and as we have good Reason to believe against the Opinion even of Your Privy-Council had been prevailed with to Dissolve it and to call another to meet at Oxford where neither Lords nor Commons can be in Safety but will be daily exposed to the Sword of the Papists and their Adherents of whom too many are crept into Your Majesties Guards The Liberty of speaking according to their Consciences will be thereby Destroyed and the Validity of all their Acts and Proceedings consisting in it left Disputable The Straitness of the Place no way admits of such a concourse of Persons as now follows every Parliament the Witnesses which are necessary to give Evidence against the Popish Lords such Judges or others whom the Commons have Impeached or had resolved to Impeach can neither bear the Charge of going thither nor trust themselves under the Protection of a Parliament that is it self Evidently under the power of Guards and Soldiers The Premises considered We Your Majesties Petitioners out of a Just Abhorrence of such a dangerous and pernicious Council which the Authors have not dared to avow and the direful Apprehensions of the Calamities and Miseries that may ensue thereupon do make it our most Humble Prayer and Advice That the Parliament may not sit at a Place where it will not be able to Act with that Freedom which is necessary and especially to give unto their Acts and Proceedings that Authority which they ought to have amongst the People and have ever had unless Impaired by some Awe upon them of which there wants not Precedents And that Your Majesty would be graciously pleased to Order It to Sit at Westminster it being the usual Place and where they may Consult and Act with Safety and Freedom And your Petitioness shall ever Pray c. Monmouth Kent Huntington Bedford Salisbury Clare Stanford Essex Shaftsbury Mordant Evers Paget Grey Herbert Howard Delamer The Counties
the People 2. There is a mutual compact tacit or express between a Prince and his Subjects and that if he perform not his duty they are discharg'd from theirs 3. That if lawful Governors become Tyrants or govern otherwise than by the Laws of God and Man they ought to do they forfeit the Right they had unto their Government Lex Rex Buchanan de Jure Regni Vindiciae contra tyrannos Bellarmine de Conciliis de Pontifice Milton Goodwin Baxter H. C. 4. The Sovereignty of England is in the three Estates viz. King Lords and Commons The King has but a co-ordinate Power and may be over-ruled by the other two Lex Rex Hunton of a limited and mix'd Monarchy Baxter H. C. Polit. Catech. 5. Birthright and proximity of Blood give no title to Rule or Government and it is Lawful to preclude the next Heir from his Right of Succession to the Crown Lex Rex Hunt's Postscript Doleman History of Succession Julian the Apostate Mene Tekel 6. It is Lawful for Subjects without the Consent and against the Command of the Supreme Magistrate to enter into Leagues Covenants and Associations for defence of themselves and their Religion Solemn League and Covenant Late Association 7. Self-preservation is the Fundamental Law of Nature and supersedes the Obligation of all others whenever they stand in competition with it Hobbs de Cive Leviathan 8. The Doctrine of the Gospel concerning patient suffering of Injuries is not inconsistent with violent resisting of the higher Powers in case of Persecution for Religion Lex Rex Julian Apostat Apolog. Relat. 9. There lies no Obligation upon Christians to Passive Obedience when the Prince Commands any thing against the Laws of our Country And the Primitive Christians chose rather to die than resist because Christianity was not yet settled by the Laws of the Empire Julian Apostate 10. Possession and strength give a right to Govern and Success in a Cause or Enterprize proclaims it to be Lawful and Just to pursue it is to comply with the Will of God because it is to follow the Conduct of his Providence Hobbs Owen's Sermon before the Regicides Jan. 31. 1648. Baxter Jenkin's Petition Octob. 1651. 11. In the state of Nature there is no difference between good and evil right and wrong the state of Nature is a state of War in which every Man hath a right to all things 12. The Foundation of Civil Authority is this natural right which is not given but left to the Supreme Magistrate upon Men's entring into Societies and not only a Foreign Invader but a Domestick Rebel puts himself again into a state of nature to be proceeded against not as a Subject but an Enemy And consequently acquires by his Rebellion the same right over the Life of his Prince as the Prince for the most heinous Crimes has over the Life of his own Subjects 13. Every Man after his entring into a Society retains a right of defending himself against Force and cannot transfer that right to the Common-wealth when he consents to that Union whereby a Common-wealth is made and in case a great many Men together have already resisted the Common-wealth for which every one of them expecteth Death they have liberty then to joyn together to assist and defend one another Their bearing of Arms subsequent to the first breach of their Duty though it be to maintain what they have done is no new unjust act and if it be only to defend their Persons is not unjust at all 14. An Oath superadds no obligation to pact and a pact obliges no further than it is credited And consequently if a Prince gives any Indication that he does not believe the Promises of Fealty and Allegiance made by any of his Subjects they are thereby freed from their subjection and notwithstanding their Pacts and Oaths may lawfully rebel against and destroy their Sovereign Hobbs de Cive Leviathan 15. If a People that by Oath and Duty are oblig'd to a Sovereign shall sinfully dispossess him and contrary to their Covenants chuse and covenant with another they may be obliged by their latter Covenant notwithstanding their former Baxter H. C. 16. All Oaths are unlawful and contrary to the Word of God Quakers 17. An Oath obliges not in the sense of the Imposer but the Takers Sheriffs Case 18. Dominion is founded in Grace 19. The Powers of this World are Usurpations upon the Prerogative of Jesus Christ and it is the Duty of God's People to destroy them in order to the setting Christ upon his Throne Fifth-Monarchy Men. 20. The Presbyterian Government is the Scepter of Christ's Kingdom to which Kings as well as others are bound to submit and the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs asserted by the Church of England is injurious to Christ the sole King and Head of his Church Altare Damascenum Apolog. relat Hist Indulgen Cartwright Travers 21. It is not lawful for Superiors to impose any thing in the Worship of God that is not antecedently necessary 22. The duty of not offending a weak Brother is inconsistent with all human Authority of making Laws concerning indifferent things Protestant Reconciler 23. Wicked Kings and Tyrants ought to be put to Death and if the Judges and inferior Magistrates will not do their office the Power of the Sword devolves to the People if the major part of the People refuse to exercise this Power then the Ministers may Excommunicate such a King after which it is lawful for any of the Subjects to kill him as the People did Athaliah and Jehu Jezabel Buchanan Knox. Goodman Gilby Jesuits 24. After the sealing of the Scripture-Canon the People of God in all ages are to expect new Revelations for a rule of their Actions * Quakers and other Enthusiasts and it is lawful for a private Man having an inward motion from God to kill a Tyrant †Goodman 25. The example of Phineas is to us instead of a Command for what God has commanded or approved in one Age must needs oblige in all Goodman Knox. Naphtali 26. King Charles the First was lawfully put to Death and his Murtherers were the blessed Instruments of God's Glory in their Generation Milton Goodwin Owen 27. King Charles the First made War upon his Parliament and in such a case the King may not only be resisted but he ceaseth to be King Baxter We decree judge and declare all and every of these Propositions to be False Seditious and Impious and most of them to be also Heretical and Blasphemous infamous to Christian Religion and destructive of all Government in Church and State We farther decree that the Books which contain the foresaid Propositions and impious Doctrines are fitted to deprave good Manners corrupt the Minds of unwary Men stir up Seditions and Tumults overthrow States and Kingdoms and lead to Rebellion murther of Princes and Atheism it self And therefore we interdict all Members of the University from the reading the said Books under the Penalties
is I shall only say As my Life hath most of it been spent in serving and suffering for his Majesty so whatever be the event of this Process I resolve while I breath to be loyal and faithful to His Majesty And whether I live publickly or in obscurity my head my heart nor my hand shall never be wanting where I can be useful to His Majesties Service And while I live and when I die I shall pray That God Almighty would bless His Majesty with a long happy and prosperous Reign and that the lineal legal successours of the Crown may continue Monarchs of all His Majesties Dominions and be Defenders of the True Primitive Christian Apostolick Catholick Protestant Religion while Sun and Moon endure God save the King The Kings own Letter to this Nobleman when he was Lord Lorn Collogne December 20. 1654. My Lord Lorn I Am very glad to hear from Middleton what affection and zeal you shew to my Service how constantly you adhere to him in all his distresses and what good Service you have performed upon the Rebels I assure you you shall find me very just and kind to you in rewarding what you have done and suffered for me and I hope you will have more Credit and Power with those of your Kindred and Dependants upon your Family to engage them with you for me than any body else can have to seduce them against me and I shall look upon all those who shall refuse to follow you as unworthy of any protection hereafter from me which you will let them know This honest Bearer M will inform you of my Condition and Purposes to whom you will give Credit and he will tell you That I am very much Your very affectionate Friend C. R. General Middleton's Order to the Earl of Argyle who was then Lord Lorn for capitulating with the English wherein he largely expresseth his Worth and Loyalty John Middleton Lieutenant General next and immediate under His Majesty and Commander in chief of all the Forces raised and to be raised within the Kingdom of Scotland SEeing the Lord Lorn hath given so singular proofs of clear and perfect Loyalty to the Kings Majesty and of pure and constant affection to the good of His Majesties Affairs is never hitherto to have any ways complyed with the Enemy and to have been principally instrumental in the enlivening of this late War and one of the chief and first movers in it and hath readily chearfully and gallantly engaged and resolutely and constantly continued active in it notwithstanding the many powerful disswasions discouragements and oppositions he hath met withal from divers hands and hath in the carrying on of the Service shewn such signal Fidelity Integrity Generosity Prudence Courage and Condect and such high Vertue Industry and Ability as are suitable to the Dignity of his Koble Family and the Trust His Majesty reposed in him and hath not only stood out against all temptations and enticements but hath most nobly crossed and repressed designs and attempts of deserting the Service and persisted loyally and firmly in it to the very last through excessive toil and many great difficulties misregarding all personal inconveniencies and chusing the loss of Friends Fortune and all private Concernments and to endure the utmost extremities rather than to swerve in the least from his Duty or taint his Reputation with the meanest shadow of disloyalty and dishonour I do therefore hereby testifie and declare That I am perfectly satisfied with his whole Deportments in relation to the Enemy and this late War and do highly approve them as being not only above all I can express of their worth but almost beyond all parallel And I do withal hereby both allow and most earnestly desire and wish him to lose no time in taking such course for his safety and preservation by Treaty and Agreement or Capitulation as he shall judg most fit and expedient for the good of his Person Family and Estate since inevitable and invincible necessity hath forced us to lay aside this War And I can now no other way express my respects to him nor contribute my endeavour to do him Honour and Service Intestimony whereof I have signed and sealed these Presents at Dunveagave the last day of March 1655. JOHN MIDDLETON Another Letter from the Earl of Middleton to the same purpose Paris April 17. 1655. My Noble Lord I Am hopeful that the Bearer of this Letter will be found one who has been a most faithful Servant to your Lordship and my kind Friend and a sharer in my Troubles Indeed I have been strengthned by him to support and overcome many difficulties He will acquaint you with what hath past which truly was strange to both of us but your own Re-encounters will lessen them My Lord I shall be faithful in giving you that Character which your Worth and Merit may justly challenge I profess it is next to the ruine of the Service one of my chiefest Regrets that I could not possibly wait upon you before my going from Scotland that I might have settled a way of Correspondence with you and that your Lordship might have understood me better than yet you do I should have been plain in every thing and indeed have made your Lordship my Confessor and I am hopeful the Bearer will say somewhat for me and I doubt not but your Lordship will trust him If it shall please God to bring me safe from beyond Sea your Lordship shall hear from me by a sure hand Sir Ro. M. will tell you a way of corresponding So that I shall say no more at present but that I am without possibility of change My Noble Lord Your Lordships most Faithful and most Humble Servant JO. MIDDLETON A Letter from the Earl of Glencairn testifying his esteem for this Noble Person and the sense he had of his loyalty to the King when few had the Courage to own him My Lord LEst it may be my misfortune in all these great Revolutions to be misrepresented to your Lordship as a person unworthy of your favourable Opinion an Artifice very frequent in these times I did take occasion to call for a Friend and Servant of yours the Laird of Spanie on whose discretion I did adventure to lay forth my hearts desire to obviate in the bud any of these misunderstandings Your Lordships true worth and zeal to your Countries happiness being so well known to me and confirmed by our late suffering acquaintance And now finding how much it may conduce to these great ends we all with that a perfect Unity may be amongst all good and honest-hearted Scotchmen tho there be few more insignificant than my self yet my zeal for those ends obliges me to say that if your Lordships health and affairs could have permitted you to have been at Edenburgh in these late times you would have seen a great inclination and desire amongst all here of a perfect Unity and of a mutual respect to your Person as of chief
upon the King and the Government For the writing an answer is no allowance but a condemning Nor can the Council allow any more than they can remit And tho it may justly be denied that the Council heard even the Earls own Explanation yet the hearing or allowing him to sit is no Relevant Plea because they might very justly have taken a time to consider how far it was fit to accuse upon that Head And it is both just and fit for the Council to take time and by express Act of Parliament the negligence of the King Officers does not bind them For if this were allowed Leading men in the Council might commit what Crimes they pleased in the Council which certainly the King may quarrel many years after And tho all the Council had allowed him that day any one Officer of State might have quarrelled it the next day As to the Opinion of Bellarmine Sanderson and others it is ever contended that the principles of the Covenant agree very well with those of the Jesuites and both do still allow Equivocations and Evasions But no solid Orthodox Divine ever allowed That a man who was to swear without any Evasion should swear so as he is bound to nothing as it is contended the Earl is not for the Reasons represented And as they still recommend That when men are not clear they might abstain as the Earl might have done in this case so they still conclude That men should tell in clear terms what the sense is by which they are to be bound to the State Whereas the Earl here tells only in the general and in most ambigious terms That he takes it as far as he can obey and as far as it is consistent with the Protestant Religion and that he takes it in his own sense and that he is not bound by it from making alterations but as far as he thinks it for the advantage of Church or State which sense is a thousand times more doubtful than the Test and is in effect nothing but what the taker pleases himself As to the Treason founded on His Majesties Advocate founds it first upon the Fundamental and Common Laws of this and all Nations whereby it is Treason for any man to make any alteration he shall think for the advantage of Church or State which he hopes is a principle cannot be denied in the general And whereas it is pretended That this cannot be understood of mean alterations and of alterations to be made in a lawful way It is answered That as the thing it self is Treason so this Treason is not taken off by any of these qualifications because he declares he will wish and endeavour any alteration he thinks fit and any alteration comprehends all alterations that he thinks fit Nam propositio indefinita aequipollet universali And the word any is general in its own nature and is in plain terms a reserving to himself to make alterations both great and small And the restriction is not all alterations that the King shall think fit or are consistent with the Laws and Acts of Parliament but he is still to be Judge of this and his Loyalty is to be the Standard Nor did the Covenanters in the last Age nor do these who are daily executed decline that they are bound to obey the King simply but only that they are bound to obey him no otherwise than as far as his Commands are consistent with the Law of God of Nature and of this Kingdom and with the Covenant And their Treason lies in this And when it is asked them Who shall be judge in this they still make themselves Judges And the reason of all Treason being that the Government is not secure it is desired to be known what way the Government can be secured after this paper since the Earl is still Judge how far he is obliged and what is his Loyalty And if this had been sufficient the Covenant had been a very excellent paper for they are there bound to endeavour in their several stations to defend the Kings person but when the King challenged them how they came to make War against him their great Refuge was That they were themselves still Judges as to that And for illustrating this power the Lords of Justitiary are desired to consider Quid Juris if the Earl or any man else should have reserved to himself in this Oath a liberty to rise in Arms or to oppose the lineal Succession tho he had added In a lawful manner for the thing being in it self unlawful this is but sham and Protestatio contraria facto And if these be unlawful notwithstanding of such additions so much more must this general reservation of making any alterations likewise be unlawful notwithstanding of these additions For he that reserves the general power of making any alteration does a fortiori reserve power to make any alteration tho never so fundamental For all particulars are included in the General and whatever may be said against the particulars may much more strongly be said against the general 2. The 130. Act Par. 8. James VI is expressly founded on because nothing can be a greater diminution of the power of the Parliament than to introduce a way or means whereby all their Acts and Oaths shall be made insignificant and ineffectual as this paper does make them for the Reasons represented Nor are any of the Estates of Parliament secure at this rate but that they who reserved a general power to make all alterations may under that â—eneral come to alter any of them 3. What can be a greater impugning of the Dignity and Authority of Parliaments than to say That the Parliament has made Acts for the security of the Kingdom which are in themselves ridiculous inconsistent with themselves and the Protestant Religion And as to what is answered against invading the Kings Prerogative and the Legislative power in Parliaments in adding a part to an Oath or Act is not relevantly inferred since the sense of these words And this I understand as a part of my Oath is not to be understood as if any thing were to be added to the Law but â—â—ly to the Oath and to be an interpretation of the Oath It is replied That after this no man needs to add a Caution to the Oath in Parliament But when he comes to take the Oath do the Parliament what they please he will add his own part Nor can this part be looked upon as a sense for if this were the sense before this paper he needed not understand it as a part of it for it wanted not that part And in general as every man may add his own part so the King can be secure of no part But your Lordships of Justitiary are desired to consider how dangerous it would be in this Kingdom and how ill it would sound in any other Kingdom That men should be allowed to reserve to themselves liberty to make any alteration they thought fit in Church or
of the Kings Officers cannot prejudg his Interest It is answered The Pannel is very confident that neither the Lords of His Majesties Privy Council consisting of persons of eminent Loyalty and Judgment nor His Majesties Officers were capable of any such escape as is pretended and if the tenor of the Pannel's Explication did in the least import the high and infamous Crimes libelled as beyond all peradventure it does not it were strange how the same being contained in the aforesaid Vindication and the whole Clauses thereof justified that this should have been looked on as no Crime and allowed to be published And the Pannel neither does nor needs to make farther use thereof but to convince all dis-interested persons that his Explication can import no Crime And whereas it is pretended That the Crime of Treason is inferred from the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and from that Clause of the Pannel's Explication whereby he declares he is not bound up by any thing in this Oath not to endeavour any alteration in a lawful way which being an indefinite proposition is equipollent to an universal and is upon the matter coincident with a Clause which was rebellious in its consequences contained in the Solemn League and Covenant It is answered That it is strange how such a plain and innocent Clause whereby beyond all question he does express no more than was naturally imported the Crime of Treason which no Lawyer ever allowed except where it was founded upon express Law Luce Meridiana Clarior And indeed if such stretches and inferences can make men guilty of Treason no man can be secure And the words in the Pannel's Declaration are plain and clear yet non sunt cavillanda and import no more but that in his station and in a lawful way and consistent with the Protestant Religion and his Loyalty he might endeavour any alteration to the advantage of Church and State And was there ever any loyal or rational Subject that does or can doubt that this is the natural import of the Oath And indeed it were a strange Oath if it were capable of another sense and being designed for the security of the Government should bind up mens hands to concur for its advantage And how was it possible that the Pannel or any other in the capacity of a Privy-Councellor or a Member of the Parliament would have satisfied his Duty and Allegiance in other terms And whereas it is pretended that there was the like case in the pretended League and Covenant it is answered The Assertion is evidently a Mistake and tho it were the Argument is altogether inconsequential For that League and Covenant was treasonable in it self as being a Combination entred into without His Majesties Authority and was treasonable in the glosses that were put upon it and was imposed by absolute violence on the Subjects of this Kingdom And how can the Pannel be in the least supposed to have had any respect to the said League and Covenant when he had so often taken the Declaration disowning and renouncing it as an unlawful and sinful Oath and concurred in the many excellent Laws and Acts of Parliament made by His Majesty condemning the same as seditious and treasonable And whereas it is pretended That the Pannel is guilty of Perjury having taken the Oath in another sense than was consistent with the genuine sense of the Parliament and that by the Authority cited he doth commento eludere Juramentum which ought always to be taken in the sense of him that imposeth the Oath It is answered The Pretence is most groundless and Perjury never was nor can be inferred but by the commission or omission of something directly contrary to the Oath And altho it is true That where an Oath is taken without any Declaration of the express sense of the persons who take it it obliges sub poena Perjurii in the sense not of the taker but of the imposer of the Oath because expressing no Sense Law and Reason presumes there is a full acquiescence in the sense and meaning of the imposer of the Oath and then if an Oath be not so taken he that takes it is guilty of Perjury Yet there was never Lawyer nor Divine Popish or Protestant but agree in this That whatever be the tenor of the Oath if before the taking thereof the party in express terms does publickly and openly declare the sense in which he takes it it is impossible it can infer the Crime of Perjury against him in any other sense this not being Commentum excogitatum after the taking of the Oath And if this were not so how is it possible in Sense and Reason that ever any Explication or Sense could solve the Scruples of a mans Conscience For it might be always pretended That notwithstanding of the express sense wherein he took it he should be guilty of Perjury from another sense And that this is the irrefragable opinion of all Divines of whatever peswasion is not only clear from the Authority above-mentioned even those who allow of reserved senses but more especially by the universal suffrage of all Protestant Divines who tho they do abominate all thoughts of Subterfuges or Evasions after taking of the Oath yet they do always allow and advise for the safety and security of a doubting and scrupulous Conscience that they should express and declare before the taking of the Oath the true sense and meaning wherein they have freedom to take it and for which Sandersone de Juramento is cited Prelct 6. Sect. 10. pag. 75. where his words are Sane ut inter Jurandum omnia recte fiant expedit ut de verborum sensu inter omnes partes quarum interest liquido constet quod veteribus dictum liquido Jurare And an Oath being one of the highest Acts of Devotion containing Cultum Latriae there is nothing more consonant to the Nature of all Oaths and to that Candor Ingenuity and Chrstian simplicity which all Law and Religion requires in such cases The Kings Advocate 's Third Plea against the Earl of Argyle HIS Majesties Advocate conceives he has nothing to answer as to depraving Leasing-making and mis-interpreting c. save that this Oath was only designed to exclude Recusants and consequently the Pannel may thereby be debarred from his Offices but not made guilty of a Crime To which he Triplies 1. If ever the Earl had simply refused that had been true but that did not at all excuse from defaming the Law for a defamer is not punished for refusing but for defaming 2. It he had simply refused the Government had been in no more hazard but if men will both retain their places and yet take the same in such words as secure not the Government it were strange to think that the design of the Law being to secure against mens possessing who will not obey that yet it should allow them possession who do not obey Nor is the refuser here in a better case than the Earl
that the Earl never troubled him about any such matter nor solicited him now these Eighteen years for any Title Office or Imployment though he confesses he had of all sorts nor hath he been burthensom to His Majesty's Exchequer 500 l. yearly for four or five years that the Earl served in the Treasury being all that ever he touched of his Majesty's Money albeit few attended more and none so much that lived at his distance He was also twice at London to kiss His Majesty's hand but still on his own Charges Which things are not said to lessen His Majesty's bounty and goodness whereof the Earl still retains all just tender and dutiful impressions but to answer the Advocate and to teach others to hold their peace that cannot say so much His Life is known to have been True Honest and of a piece and all alongs he hath walked with that straightness that he can compare his Integrity with all that now attacque him By all which it is apparent That what the Advocate here pretends for an aggravation may wâ—ll be accounted a Second part of the Earl's Persecutions but cannot in the least impair either his Innocence or his Honour Seeing therefore the ground of the Earl's present accusation with all he either designed said oâ— did in this matter was only that when called nay required to take the Test and after leave first obtained from his Highness and Council he did in their presence before the giving of his Oath declare and propose to them the sense wherein he was willing to take it That this his sense neither contains nor insinuates the least slander reproach or reflection either upon the King the Parliament or any Person whatsomeever but on the contrair is in effect tenfold more agreeable to the words of the Test and meaning of the Parliament that framed it than the Explanation emitted by the Council and was also most certainly the first day by them accepted and when the next day challenged by him offered to be retracted and refused to be signed That the whole Indictment and more especially that part of it about the Treason is a meer Rapsody of the most irrational absurd and pernicious consequences that ever the Sun beheld not only forcing the Common rules of Speech Charity and Humanity but ranversing all the Topicks of Law Reason and Religion and threatning no less in the Earl's person than the ruine of every Man's Fortune Life and Honour That the Earl's Defences and grounds of Exculpation were most pregnant and unanswerable and either in themselves notour or offered to be instantly verified And lastly That the aggravations pretended against him do either directly make for him or most evidently discover the restless malice of some of his implacable enemies Shall our Gracious King who not only clearly understands Right and hates Oppression but also to all his other excellent qualities hath by his Gentleness and Clemency even towards his Enemies added that great Character of Goodness upon vain and false insinuations and unreasonable and violent stretches not only take away the Life of an innocent person but of one who himself and his Family be it said without disparagement have for a longer time and more faithfully and signally served His Majesty and the Crown than any person or Family of his degree and quality of all his Persecutors can pretend to Shall his numerous Family hopeful Children his Friends and Creditors all be destroyed Shall both former Services be forgot Innocence oppressed and all Rules of Justice and Laws of society and humanity for his sake overturned Shall not only the Earl be cut off and his noble and ancient Family extinguished but his Blood and Memory tainted with as black and horrible a stain as if he had conspired with Jacques Clement Ravillack The Gun-powder Miscreants The Bloody Irish Rebels and all the other most wicked and hainous Traytors of that Gang And all this for a meer imaginary Crime whereof it is most certain that no Man living hath or can have the least real conviction and upon such frivolous allegations as all men see to be at the top meer Moon-shine and at the bottom Villany unmixed After clearing these things the Earl it seems intended to have addressed himself to His Majesty's Advocate in particular and to have told him that he had begun very timeously in Parliament to fall first on his heritable jurisdictions and then upon his Estate and that now he was fallen upon his Life and Honour whereby it was easie to divine that more was intended from the beginning than the simple taking away of his Offices seeing that some of them on his refusing the Test were taken away by the Certification of the Act of Parliament and that those that were heritable he offered in Parliament to present and surrender to His Majesty on his knee if His Majesty after hearing him should think it fit only he was not willing to have them torn from him as hath been said and if that were all were designed as was at first given out the Advocate need not have set him on high as Naboth and accuse him as a Blasphemer of God and the King Then turning his Speech to the Lords of Justitiary he thought to have desired that they would yet seriously consider his words in their true sense and circumstances his own Explanation of his Explication and especially the foregoing matter of Fact to have been laid before them with his Defences and grounds of Exculpation as also to have told them That they could not but observe how that he was singled out amongst Thousands against whom much more then all he is charged with could be alledged and that they must of necessity acknowledg if they would speak out their own Conscience that what he had said was spoke in pure innocence and duty and only for the exoneration of himself as a Christian and one honoured to be of His Majesty's Privy Council where he was bound by his Oath to speak truth freely and not to throw the smallest reproach on either person or thing Adding That he was loath to say any thing that looks like a reflection upon His Majesty's Privy Council but if the Council can wrong one of their own number he thought he might demand If he had not met with hard measure For first he was pressed and persuaded to come to the Council then they receive his Explanation and take his Oath then they complain of him to His Majesty where he had no access to be heard and by their Letter under their hands affirm That they had been careful not to suffer any to take the Test with their own Explanations albeit they had allowed a thing very like it first to Earl Queensberry then to the Clergy And the President now Chancellour had permitted several Members of the College of Justice to premise when they swear the Test some one sense and some another and some nonsense as one saying he took it in sano sensu
of Justitiary before pronouncing sentence but without any answer or effect It was then commonly said that by the old Law and Custom the Court of Justitiary could no more in the case of Treason than of any other Crime proceed further against a Person not compearing and absent than to declare him Out-Law and Fugitive And that albeit it be singular in the case of Treason that the Trial may go on even to a final Sentence though the Party be absent yet such Trials were only proper to and always reserved for Parliaments And that so it had been constantly observed until after the Rebellion in the Year 1666 But there being several Persons notourly engaged in that Rebellion who had escaped and thereby withdrawn themselves from Justice it was thought that the want of a Parliament for the time ought not to afford them any immunity and therefore it was resolved by the Council with advice of the Lords of Session that the Court of Justitiary should summon and proceed to trial and sentence against these Absents whether they compeared or not and so it was done Only because the thing was new and indeed an innovation of the old Custom to make all sure in the first Parliament held thereafter in the Year 1669. it was thought fit to confirm these Proceedings of the Justitiary in that point and also to make a perpetual Statute that in case of open Rebellion and Rising in Arms against the King and Government the Treason in all time coming might by an Order from His Majesty's Council be tried and the Actors proceeded against by the Lords of Justitiary even to final sentence whether the Traytors compeared or not This being then the present Law and custom it is apparent in the first place that the Earl's Case not being that of an open Rebellion and Rising in Arms is not at all comprehended in the Act of Parliament So that it is without question that if in the beginning he had not entered himself Prisoner but absented himself the Lords of Justiciary could not have gone further than upon a citation to have declared him Fugitive But others said that the Earl having both entered himself Prisoner and compeared and after debate having been found guilty before he made his escape the case was much altered And whether the Court could notwithstanding of the Earl's intervening escape yet go on to sentence was still debatable for it was alledged for the affirmative that seeing the Earl had twice compeared and that after debate the Court had given judgment and the Assize returned their Verdict so that had nothing remained but the pronouncing of Sentence it was absurd to think that it should be in the power of the Party thus accused and found guilty by his escape to frustrate Justice and withdraw himself from the punishment he deserved But on the other hand it was pleaded for the Earl That first It was a fundamental Rule That until once the Cause were concluded no Sentence could be pronounced Next that it was a sure Maxim in Law that in Criminal Actions there neither is or can be any other conclusion of the cause than the Parties presence and silence So that after all that had past the Earl had still freedom to add what he thought fit in his own defence before pronouncing sentence and therefore the Lords of Justiciary could no more proceed to sentence against him being escaped than if he had been absent from the beginning the Cause being in both cases equally not concluded and the principle of Law uniformly the same viz. That in Criminals except in cases excepted no final sentence can be given in absence For as the Law in case of absence from the beginning doth hold that just temper as neither to suffer the Contumacious to go altogether unpunished nor on the other hand finally to condemn a party unheard And therefore doth only declare him Fugitive and there stops So in the case of an Escape before Sentence where it cannot be said the Party was fully heard and the Cause concluded the Law doth not distinguish nor can the parity of Reason be refused Admitting then that the Cause was so far advanced against the Earl that he was found guilty Yet 1. This is but a declaring of what the Law doth as plainly presume against the Party absent from the beginning and consequently of it self can operate no further 2dly The finding of a Party guilty is no conclusion of the Cause And 3dly As it was never seen nor heard that a Party was condemned in absence except in excepted Cases whereof the Earl's is none so he having escaped and the Cause remaining thereby unconcluded the general rule did still hold and no sentence could be given against him It was also remembred that the Dyets and days of the Justice Court are peremptour and that in that case even in Civil far more in Criminal Courts and Causes a Citation to hear Sentence is constantly required which induced some to think that at least the Earl should have been lawfully cited to hear Sentence before it could be pronounced But it is like this course as confessing a difficulty and occasioning too long a delay was therefore not made use of However upon the whole it was the general Opinion That seeing the denouncing the Earl Fugitive would have wrought much more in Law than all that was commonly said at first to be designed against him And that his Case did appear every way so favourable that impartial men still wondered how it came to be at all questioned It had been better to have sisted the Process with his Escape and taken the ordinary course of Law without making any more stretches But as I have told you when the Friday came the Lords of Justiciary without any respect or answer given to the Petition above-mentioned given in by the Countess of Argyle to the Court for a stop pronounced Sentence first in the Court and then caused publish the same with all solemnity at the Mercat-Cross at Edinburgh FOrasmuch as it is found by an Assize That Archibald Earl of Argyle is guilty and culpable of the Crimes of Treason Leasing-making and Leasing-telling for which he was detained within the Castle of Edinburgh out of which he has now since the said Verdict made his Escape Therefore the Lords Commissioners of Justiciary decern and adjudge the said Archibald Earl of Argyle to be execute to the death demained as a Traytor and to underly the pains of Treason and other punishments appointed by the Laws of this Kingdom when he shall be apprehended at such a time and place and in such manner as his Majesty in his Royal pleasure shall think fit to declare and appoint And his Name Memory and Honours to be extinct And his Arms to be riven forth and delete out of the Books of Arms swa that his Posterity may never have place nor be able hereafter to bruick or joyse any Honour Offices Titles or Dignities within this Realm in
alledged irrelevancy thereof That in time coming all Criminal Libels shall contain that the persons complained on are Art and Part of the Crimes Libelled which shall be relevant to accuse them thereof swa that no exception or objection take away that part of the Libel in time coming He says That he finds no Act of Parliament more unreasonable for the Statutory part of that Act committing the Tryal of Art and Part to Assizers seems most unjust Seeing in committing the greatest questions of the Law to the most ignorant of the Subjects it puts a sharp Sword into the hands of blind men And the reason of this Act specified in the Narrative is likewise most inept and no ways illative c. What Reproaches What Blasphemies The Earl said not one word against any Act of Parliament But on the contrary That he was confident the Parliament intended no contradiction and that he was willing to take the Test in the Parliaments sense But here the Advocate both says and Prints it That an Act of Parliament is most unreasonable and most unjust and it's reason most inept and that it puts a sharp Sword in the hands of blind men Whereof the smallest branch is infinitely more reproachful than all can be strained out of the Earl's words But Sir Speculation is but Speculation and if the Advocate when his day comes be as able to purge himself of Practical Depravations as I am inclined to excuse all his Visionary Lapses notwithstanding of the famous Title Quod quisque juris in alterum statuorit ut ipse eodem jure utatur he shall never be the worse of my censure Murther will out Or the King's Letter justifying the Marquess of Antrim and declaring That what he did in the Irish Rebellion was by Direction from his Royal Father and Mother and for the service of the Crown Ireland Aug. 22. 1663. Ever honoured Sir LAST Thursday we came to Trial with my Lord Marquess of Antrim but according to my Fears which you always surmised to be in vain he was by the King 's Extraordinary and Peremptory Letter of Favour restored to his Estate as an Innocent Papist We proved Eight Qualifications in the Act of Settlement against him the least of which made him uncapable of being restored as Innocent We proved 1. That he was to have a hand in surprizing the Castle of Dublin in the Year 1641. 2. That he was of the Rebels Party before the 15th of September 1643. which we made appear by his hourly and frequent intercourse with Renny O Moore and many others being himself the most notorious of the said Rebels 3. That he entered into the Roman-Catholick Confederacy before the Peace in 1643. 4. That he constantly adhered to the Nuncio's Party in opposition to his Majesty's Authority 5. That he sate from time to time in the Supream Council of Kilkenny 6. That he signed that execrable Oath of Association 7. That he was Commissionated and acted as Lieutenant-General from the said Assembly at Kilkenny 8. That he declared by several Letters of his own penning himself in Conjunction with Owen Ro Oneale and a constant Opposer to the several Peaces made by the Lord Lieutenant with the Irish We were seven hours by the Clock in proving our Evidence against him but at last the King's Letter being opened and read in Court Rainsford one of the Commissioners said to us That the King's Letter on his behalf was Evidence without Exception and thereupon declared him to be an Innocent Papist This Cause Sir hath tho many Reflections hath passed upon the Commissioners before more startled the Judgments of all men than all the Tryals since the beginning of their sitting and it is very strange and wonderful to all of the Long Robe that the King should give such a Letter having divested himself of that Authority and reposed the Trust in the Commissioners for that purpose And likewise it is admired that the Commissioners having taken solemn Oaths To execute nothing but according to and in pursuance of the Act of Settlement should barely upon his Majesty's Letter declare the Marquess Innocent To be short There never was so great a Rebel that had so much favour from so good a King And it is very evident to me though young and scarce yet brought upon the stage that the consequence of these things will be very bad and if God of his extraordinary mercy do not prevent it War and if possible greater Judgments cannot be far from us where Vice is Patroniz'd and Antrim a Rebel upon Record and so lately and clearly proved one should have no other colour for his Actions but the King 's own Letter which takes all Imputations from Antrim and lays them totally upon his own Father Sir I shall by the next if possible send you over one of our Briefs against my Lord by some Friend It 's too large for a Pacquet it being no less in bulk than a Book of Martyrs I have no more at present but refer you to the King's Letter hereto annexed CHARES R. RIght Trusty and well-beloved Cousins and Counsellors c. We greet you well How far we have been from interposing on the behalf of any of our Irish Subjects who by their miscarriages in the late Rebellion in that Kingdom of Ireland had made themselves unworthy of Our Grace and Protection is notorious to all men and We were so jealous in that particular that shortly after Our return into this Our Kingdom when the Marquess of Antrim came hither to present his duty to Us upon the Information We received from those Persons who then attended Us by a Deputation from Our Kingdom of Ireland or from those who at that time owned our Authority there that the Marquess of Antrim had so misbehaved himself towards Us and Our late Royal Father of blessed memory that he was in no degree worthy of the least Countenance from Us and that they had manifest and unquestionable Evidence of such his guilt Whereupon We refused to admit the said Marquess so much as into Our Presence but on the contrary committed him Prisoner to our Tower of London where after he had continued several Months under a strict restraint upon the continual Information of the said Persons We sent him into Ireland without interposing the least on his behalf but left him to undergo such a Tryal and Punishment as by the Justice of that Our Kingdom should be found due to his Crime expecting still that some heinous Matter would be objected and proved against him to make him uncapable and to deprive him of that Favour and Protection from Us which we knew his former Actions and Services had merited After many months attendance there and We presume after such Examinations as were requisite he was at last dismissed without any Censure and without any transmission of Charge against him to Us and with a License to transport himself into this Kingdom We concluded that it was then time to give him
People in divers Parliaments holden heretofore Willing to ordain Remedy for the great Damages and Mischiefs which have happened and dayly do happen by the said Cause c. By the assent of all the great Men and Commonalty of his said Realm hath Ordained and Established c. In which preamble of the Statute we may observe 1. The intollerable grievance and burden which was occasion'd by the illegal Incroachments of the See of Rome 2. The many Complaints the People had made who in those dark times under Popery were sensible of groaning under those Burdens 3. The Endeavours used in vain by former Parliaments to Redress the same and to bring their Laws in being to have their Force and Effect 4. The acknowledgment of the King and Parliament that the Obligation hereto was upon the King 1. From the Right of the Crown which obliged every King to pass good Laws 2. The Statute in force 3. The King's Oath to keep the Old and pass New Laws for his Peoples safeguard which they should tender to him 4. From the sence of the People expressed in their Complaints and 5. From the Mischief and Damage which would otherwise ensue And therefore by the desire and accord of his People He passes this famous Law The Preamble whereof is here recited Another Statute to the same purpose you find 2 R. 2. No. 28. Also the Commons in Parliament pray That forasmuch as Petitions and Bills presented in Parliament by divers of the Commons could not heretofore have their Respective Answers That therefore both their Petitions and Bills in this present Parliament as also others which shall be presented in any future Parliament may have a good and gracious Answer and Remedy ordained thereupon before the departing of every Parliament And that to this purpose a due Statute be ensealed or Enacted at this present Parliament to be and remain in Force for all times to come To which the King replied The King's Answer THE King is pleased that all such Petitions deliver'd in Parliament of things or matters which cannot otherwise be determined A Good and Reasonable Answer shall be made and given before the departure of Parliament In which excellent Law we may observe 1. A Complaint of former remisness their Bills having aforetime been pass'd by their Grievances Unredressed by unseasonably Dissolving of Parliaments before their Laws could pass 2. That a Law might pass in that very Parliament to rectifie that Abuse for the future And 3. That it should not pass for a temporary Law but for perpetuity being of such absolute Necessity that before the Parliaments be dismissed Bills of common Right might pass And the King agreed hereto Suitable hereto we have my Lord Chief Justice Coke that great Oracle of the Law in his Instit 4. B. p. 11. asserting Petitions being truly preferr'd though very many have been Answered by the Law and Custom of Parliament before the end of Parliament This appears saith he by the Ancient Treatise De Modo tenendi Parliamentum in these Words faithfully Translated The Parliament ought not to be ended while any Petition dependeth undiscussed or at the least to which a determinate Answer is not made Rot. Par. 17. E. 3. No. 60. 25 E. 3. No. 60. 50 E. 3. No. 212. 2 R. 2.134 2 R. 2. No. 38. 1 H. 4.132 2 H. 4325.113 And that one of the principal ends of calling Parliaments is for redressing of Grievances that daily happen 36 E. 3. c. 10. 18 E. 3. c. 14. 50 E. 3. No. 17. Lyons Case Rot. Par. 1 H. 5. No. 17. 13 H. 4. No. 9. And that as concerning the departing of Parliaments It ought to be in such a manner faith Modus Tenendi viz. To be demanded yea and publiekly Proclaimed in the Parliament and within the Palace of the Parliament whether there be any that hath delivered a Petition to the Parliament and hath not received Answer thereto if there be none such it is to be supposed that every one is Satisfied or else Answered unto at the least so far forth as by the Law be may be And which custom was observed in after Ages as you have heard before Concerning the Antiquity and Authority of this Ancient Treatise called Modus tenendi Parliamentum saith my Lord Coke whereof we make often use in our Institutes Certain it is that this Modus was Rehearsed and Declared before the Conqueror at the time of his Conquest and by him approved for England and accordingly he according to Modus held a Parliament for England as appears 21 E. 3. so 60. Whereby you clearly perceive that these wholsome Laws are not only in full agreement with the Common Law and declarative thereof but in full accord with the Oath and Office of the Prince who has that great trust by the Law lodged with him for the good and benefit not hurt and mischief of the People viz. First These Laws are very suitable to the Duty and Office of a Ruler and the end for which he was instituted by God himself who commands him to do Judgment and Justice to all especially to the Oppressed and not to deny them any request for their relief protection or welfare 2 Sam. 22.3 1 Chron. 13.1 to 5.2 Chron. 9.8.19.5 c Est 1.13 Our Law-Books enjoyning the same as Bracton Lib. 1. c. 2. Lib. 3. c. 9. fol. 107 c. Fortiscue ch 9. fo 15. c. 7. fol 5.11 Coke 7. Book Reports Calvin's Case f. 11. Secondly They are also in full Harmony with the King's Coronation Oath solemnly made to all his Subjects viz. To grant fulfill and defend all rightful Laws which the Commons of the Realm shall choose and to strengthen and maintain them after his Power Thirdly These Laws are also in full agreement and oneness with Magna Charta it self that Ancient Fundamental Law which hath been Confirmed by at least Forty Parliaments viz. We shall deny We shall defer to no Man Justice and Right much less to the whole Parliament and Kingdom in denying or deferring to pass such necessary Bills which the Peoples needs call for Object But to all this which hath been said it may be objected That several of our Princes have otherwise practised by Dissolving or as laterly used by Prorogucing Parliaments at their pleasures before Grievances were Redressed and Publick Bills of Common Safety Passed and that as a Privilege belonging to the Royal Prerogative Answ To which it is Answered That granting they have so done First It is most manifest that deth not therefore create a right to them so to do according to that known Maxim a facto ad jus non valet Consequentia especially when such Actions are against so many express and positive Laws such Principles of Common Right and Justice and so many particular Tyes and Obligations upon themsâ—â—es to the contrary Secondly But if it had been so yet neither can Prerogative be pleaded to justify such Practices because the King has no Prerogative but what the Law gives
him and it can give none to destroy its self and those it protects but the contrary Bracton in his Comments pag. 487. tells us Bracton p. 487. That although the Common Law doth allow many Prerogatives to the King yet it doth not allow any that He shall wrong or hurt any by His Prerogative Therefore 't is well said by a late Worthy Author upon this point That what Power or Prerogative the Kings have in Them ought to be used according to the true and genuine intent of the Government that is for the Preservation and Interest of the People And not for the disappointing the Councils of a Parliament towards reforming Grievances and making provision for the future Execution of the Laws and whenever it is applied to frustrate those ends it is a Violation of Right and Infringement of the King's Coronation Oath who is obliged to Pass or Confirm those Laws His People shall cluse And tho he had such a Prerogative by Law yet it should not be so used especially in time of Eminent danger and distress The late King in His Advice to His Majesty that now is in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 239. Tells him That his Prerogative is best shewed and exercised in Remitting rather than exacting the Rigor of the Laws there being nothing worse than Legal Tyranny Nor would he have him entertain any Aversion or Dislike of Parliaments The Late King's advice to His Majesty which in their right Constitution with freedom and Honour will never Injure or Diminish His Greatness but will rather be as interchangings of Love Loyalty and Confidence between a Prince and His people It is true some Flatterers and Traytors have presumed in defiance to their Countries Rights to assert that such a boundless Prerogative belongs to Kings As did Chief Justice Trisilian c. in R. 2â—s time Advising him that he might Dissolve Parliaments at pleasure and that no Member should be called to Parliament nor any Act past in either House without His Approbation in the first place and that whoever advis'd otherwise were Traytors But this Advice you read was no less fatal to himself than pernicious to his Prince Bakers Chron. p. 147 148 and 159. King James in His Speech to the Parliament 1609. Gives them assurance That he never meant to Govern by any Law but the Law of the Land tho it be disputed among them as if he had an intention to alter the Law and Govern by the absolute power of a King but to put them out of doubt in that matter tells them That all Kings who are not Tyrants or Perjured will bound themselves within the limits of their Laws And they that persuade the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Commonwealth Wilson K. J. p. 46. The Conclusion 1. IF this be so That by so great Authority viz. so many Statutes in force The sundamental of the Common Law the Essentials of the Government it self Magna Charta The King's Coronation Oath so many Laws of God and Man The Parliament ought ro sit to Redress Grievances and provide for Common Safety especially in times of Common Danger And that this is eminently so who can doubt that will believe the King so many Parliaments The Cloud of Witnesses the Publick Judicatures their own sense and experience of the manifold Mischiefs which have been acted and the apparent Ruine and Confusion that impends the Nation by the restless Attempts of a bloody Interest if speedy Remedy is not applied Then let it be Queried Whether the People having thus the Knife at the Throat Cities and Habitations Fired and therein their Persons fried Invasions and Insurrections threatned to Destroy the King and Subjects Church and State and as so lately told us upon Mr. Fitz Harris's Commitment the present Design on Foot was to Depose and Kill the King and their only remedy hoped for under God to give them relief Relief thus from time time cut off viz. Their Parliaments who with so much care cost and pains are Elected sent up and Intrusted for their help turned off ré infecta and rendred so insiguificant by those frequent Prorogations and Dissolutions Are they not therefore justified in their important Cries in their many Humble Petitions to their King Fervent Addresses to their Members earnest Claims for this their Birth-right here Pleaded which the Laws of the Kingdom consonant to the Laws of God and Nature has given them 2. If so what then shall be said to those who advise to this high Violation of their Countries Rights to the infringing so many just Laws and exposing the Publick to those desperate hazards if not a total Ruine If King Alfred as Andrew Horne in his Mirror of Justice tells us hanged Darling Segnor Cadwine Cole and Forty Judges more for Judging contrary to Law and yet all those false Judgments were but in particular and private Cases What death do those Men deserve who offer this violence to the Law it self and all the Sacred Rights of their Country If the Lord Chief Justice Thorp in Ed. 3d's time for receiving the Bribery of One hundred pounds was adjudged to be Hanged as one that had made the King break his Oath to the People How much more guilty are they of making the King break His Coronation Oath that persuade him to Act against all the Laws for holding Parliaments and passing Laws therein which he is so solemnly sworn to do And if the Lord Chief Justice Tresilian was Hanged Drawn and Quartered for Advising the King to Act contrary to some Statutes only What do those deserve that advise the King to Act not only against some but against all these Ancient Laws and Statutes of the Realm And if Blake the King's Council but for assisting in the matter and drawing up Indictments by the King's Command contrary to Law tho it is likely he might Plead the King's Order for it yet if he was Hang'd Drawn and Quartered for that What Justice is due to them that assist in the Total Destruction of all the Laws of the Nation and as much in them lies their King and Country too And if Vsk the under-Sheriff whose Office is to Execute the Laws for but endeavouring to aid Tresilian Blake and their Accomplices against some of the Laws was also with Five more Hang'd Drawn and Quartered What punishment may they deserve that Aid and endeavour the Subversion of all the Laws of the Kingdom And if Empson and Dudley in Henry the Eighth's time tho two of the King 's Privy Council were Hanged for Procuring and Executing an Act of Parliament contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and to the great vexation of the People so that tho they had an Act of Parliament of their side yet that Act being against the known Laws of the Land were Hang'd as Traytors for putting that Statute in Execution Then what shall become of those who have no such Act to shelter themselves under and who
the Lives of all that are brought into Judgment do ultimately depend from their Verdict there lies no Appeal by finding Guilty or not Guilty they do complicately resolve both Law and Fact As it hath been the Law so it hath always been the Custom and Practice of these Juries upon all general Issues pleaded in Cases Civil as well as Criminal to judge both of the Law and Fact See the Reports of the Ld Chief Justice Vaughan p. 150 151. So it is said in the Report of the Lord Chief Justice Vaughan in Bushel's Case That these Juries determine the Law in all matters where Issue is joined and tried in the Principal Case whether the Issue be about Trespass or a Debt or Disseizin in Assizes or a Tort or any such like unless they should please to give a special Verdict with an implicite faith in the Judgment of the Court to which none can oblige them against ther wills These last 12 must be Men of equal condition with the Party indicted and are called his Peers therefore if it be a Peer of the Realm they must be all such when indicted at the Suit of the King and in the Case of Commoners every man of the 12 must agree to the Verdict freely without compulsion fear or menace else it is no Verdict Whether the Case of a Peer be harder I will not determine Our Ancestors were careful that all men of the like condition and quality presumed to be sensible of each other's infirmity should mutually be Judges each of others lives and alternately taste of Subjection and Rule every man being equally liable to be accused or indicted or perhaps to be suddenly judged by the Party of whom he is at present Judge if he be found innocent Whether it be Lord or Commoner that is indicted the Law intends as near as may be that his Equals that judge him should be his Companions known to him and he to them or at least his Neighbours or Dwellers near about the place where the Crime is supposed to have been committed to whom something of the Fact must probably be known and though the Lords are not appointed to be of the Neighbourhood to the indicted Lord yet the Law supposes them to be Companions and personally well known each unto other being presumed to be a small number as they have anciently been and to have met yearly or oftner in Parliament as by Law they ought besides their other meetings as the hereditary Councellors of the Kings of England If time hath altered the case of the Lords as to the number indifferency and impartiality of the Peers it hath been and may be worthy of the Parliament's consideration and the greater duty is incumbent upon Grand Juries to examine with the utmost diligence the Evidence against Peers before they find a Bill of Indictment against any of them if in truth it may put their Lives in greater danger It is not designed at this time to undertake a Discourse of Petit-Juries but to consider the Nature and Power of Grand Inquests and to shew how much the Reputation the Fortunes and the Lives of English-men depend upon the Conscientious performance of their Duty It was absolutely necessary for the support of the Government and the safety of every Man's Life and Interest that some should be trusted to inquire after all such as by Treasons Felonies or lesser Crimes disturbed the peace that they might be prosecuted and brought to condign punishment and it was no less needful for every man's quiet and safety that the trust of such Inquisitions should be put into the hands of Persons of understanding and integrity indifferent and impartial that might suffer no man to be falsely accused or defamed nor the Lives of any to be put in jeopardy by the malicious Conspiracies of greator small or the Perjuries of any profligate Wretches For these necessary honest Ends was the institution of Grand Juries Our Ancestors thought it not best to trust this great concern of their Lives and Interests in the hands of any Officer of the King 's or in any Judges named by him nor in any certain number of men during life lest they should be awed or influenced by great men corrupted by Bribes Flatteries or love of Power or become negligent or partial to Friends and Relations or pursue their own Quarrels or private Revenges or connive at the Conspiracies of others and indict thereupon But this trust of enquiring out and indicting all the Criminals in a County is placed in men of the same County more at least than Twelve of the most honest and most sufficient for knowledge and ability of Mind and Estate to be from time to time at the Sessions and Assizes and all other Commissions of Oyer and Terminer named and returned by the chief Sworn Officer of the County the Sheriff who was also by express Law anciently chosen annually by the People of every County and trusted with the Execution of all Writs and Processes of the Law and with the Power of the County to suppress all Violences unlawful Routs Riots and Rebellions Yet our Laws left not the Election of these Grand Inquests absolutely to the Will of the Sheriffs but have described in general their Qualifications who shall enquire and indict either Lord or Commoner They ought by the old Common-law to be Lawful Liedge-people of ripe Age not over aged or infirm and of good Fame amongst their Neighbours free from all reasonable suspicion of any design for himself or others upon the Estates or Lives of any suspected Criminals or quarrel or controversie with any of them They ought to be indifferent and impartial even before they are admitted to be sworn and of sufficient understanding and Estate for so great a Trust The ancient Law-book called Briton of great Authority says See Brit. p. 9 and 10. The Sheriffs Bailiffs ought to be sworn to return such as know best how to enquire and discover all breaches of the Peace and lest any should intrude themselves or be obtruded by others they ought to be returned by the Sheriff without the denomination of any except the Sheriff's Officers And agreeable hereunto was the Statute of 11 H. 4. in these words Item Because of late See 11 Hen. 4. Inquests were taken at Westminster of persons named to the Justices without due Return of the Sheriff of which persons some were outlawed c. and some fled to fanctuary for Treason and Felony c. by whom as well many Offenders were indicted as other lawful Liege-people of the King not guilty by Conspiracy Abetment and false imagination of others c. against the force of the Common-Law c. It is therefore granted for the Ease and Quietness of the People that the same Indictment with all its Dependences be void and holden for none for ever and that from henceforth no Indictment be made by any such persons but by Inquest of the King's Liedge-people in the manner as
rather inclined to desire that a Party accused should be found guilty than that he should be declared innocent if he be so in truth Doubtless the King ought to wish in all Enquiries made after Treason Felonies c. that there were none to be found in his Kingdom and that whosoever is accused might be able to answer so well and truly for himself as to shew the Accusation to be erroneous or false and to be acquitted of it Something of this appears in the common Custom of England that the Clerks of the King's Courts of Justice when any man hath pleaded Not guilty to an Indictment prays forthwith that God would send him a good deliverance The destruction of every Criminal is a loss to a Prince and ought to be grievous to him in the common regard of humanity and the more particular Relation of his Office and the name of Father The King's Interest and Honour is more concerned in the protection of the Innocent than in the punishment of the Guilty This Maxime can never run them into excesses for it hath ever been lookt upon as a mark of great Wisdom and Vertue in some Princes and States upon several occasions to destroy all Evidences against Delinquents and nothing is more usual than to compose the most dangerous Distempers of Nations by Acts of general Amnesty which were utterly unjust if it were as great a Crime to suffer the Guilty to escape as to destroy the Innocent We do not only find those Princes represented in History under odious Characters who have basely murthered the Innocent but such as by their Spies and Informers were too inquisitive after the Guilty whereas none was ever blamed for Clemency or for being too gentle Interpreters of the Laws Tho Trajan was an excellent Prince endowed with all heroical Virtues yet the most Eloquent Writers and his best Friends found nothing more to be praised in his Government Tacit. lib. 1. Hist than that in his time all men might think what they pleased and every man speak what he thought and he had no better way of distinguishing himself from his wicked Predecessors than by hanging up the Spies and Informers whom they had employed for the discovery of Crimes But if the punishment of Offenders were as universally necessary as the protection of the Innocent he were as much to be abhorred as Nero and that Clemency which is so highly praised were to be lookt upon as the worst of Vices and those who have hitherto been taken for the best of Princes were altogether as detestable as the worst Moreover all humane Laws were ordained for the preservation of the Innocent and for their sakes only are punishments inflicted that those of our own Country do solely regard this was well understood by Fortescue who saith Fort. de Laud. Leg. Ang. ch 27. Indeed I could rather wish Twenty Evil-doers to â—â—ape death through pity than one man to be unjustly condemned Such Blood hath cried to Heaven for Vengeance against Families and Kingdoms and their utter destruction hath ensued If a Criminal build be acquitted by too great lenity caution or otherwise he may be reserved for future Justice from Man or God if be doth not repent but 't is impossible that satisfaction or reparation should be made for innocent Bloodshed in the forms of Justice Without all question the King 's only just Interest in the Evidence given against the Party accused and in the manner of taking it is to have the truth made manifest that Justice may thereupon be done impartially And if Accusations may be first examined in secret more strictly and exactly to prevent Fraud and Perjury than is possible to be done in open Court as hath before appeared then 't is for the King's benefit to have it so And nothing done in or by a Court about the Trial of the Accused is for the King in the sense of our Law unless it some way conduce to Justice in the case The Witnesses which the Prosecutor brings are no further for the King than they tell the truth and the whole truth impartially and by whomsoever any others may be called upon the Enquiry or the Trial to be examined if they sincerely deliver the truth of the matters in question they are therein the King's Witnesses though the Accused be acquitted by reason of their Testimonies If such as are offered by the Attorny-General to prove Treason against any man shall be found to swear falsly maliciously or for Reward or Promises though they depose positively Facts of Treason against the Accused yet they are truly and properly Witnesses against the King by endeavouring to prevent Justice and destroy his Subjects Their Malice and Villany being confessed or proved the King's Attorney ought ex Officio to prosecute them in the King's Name and at his Suit for their Offences against him in such Depositions pretended to have been for him and the legal Form of the Indictment ought to be for their swearing falsly and maliciously against the Peace of the King his Crown and Dignity The Prosecutors themselves notwithstanding their big words and assuming to themselves to be for the King if their Prosecution shall be proved to be malicious or by Conspiracy against the Life or Fortune of the Accused they are therein against the King and ought to be indicted at the King's Suit for such Prosecutions done against His Crown and Dignity And if an Attorney-General should be found knowingly guilty of abetting such a Conspiracy his Office could not excuse or legally exempt him from suffering the villanous Judgment to the destruction of him and his Family 'T is esteemed in the Law one of the most odious Offences against the King to attempt in his Name to destroy the Innocent for whose Protection he himself was ordained Queen Elizabeth had the true sense of our Law when the Lord Burleigh Co. Inst 3d part p. 79. upon Sir Edward Coke her then Attorney's coming into her presence told her This is he who prosecutes pro Domina Regina for our Lady the Queen and She said she would have the form of the Records altered for it should be Attornatus Generalis qui pro Domina veritate sequitur The Attorney-General who prosecutes for our Lady the Truth Whoever is trusted in that employment dishonours his Master and Office if he gives occasion to the Subjects to believe that his Master seeks other profits or Advantages by Accusations than the common Peace and Welfare He ought not to excite a jealousie in any of their minds that confiscations of Estates are designed or desired by any of the King's Ministers whosoever makes such advantages to the Crown their principal aim in accusing are either Robbers and Murtherers in the Scripture-sense in seeking innocent Blood for gain or in the mildest Construction supposing the Accusation to be on good grounds they shew themselves to be of corrupt minds and a scandal to their Master and the Government Profit or loss of
desolationibus tam sanctae Eccles quam Reg. factis per hoc iniquum Concilium Domini Regis contra magnas Chartas tot toties multoties emptas redemptas concessas confirmatas per tot talia Juramenta Domini Regis nunc Dominorum Henrici Johannis ac per terribiles fulminationes Excommunicationis sententiae in transgressores communium libertatum Angliae quae in chartis praedictis continentur corroboratas cum spes praeconcepta de libertatibus illis observandis fideliter ab omnibus putaretur stabilis indubitata Rex conciliis malorum Ministrorum praeventus seductus easdem infringendo contravenire non formidavit credens deceptive pro numere absolvi à transgressione quod esset manifestum regni exterminium Aliud etiam nos omnes angit intrinsecus quod Justiciarii subtiliter ex malitia sua ac per diversa argumenta avaritiae intolerabilis superbiae Regem contra fideles suos multipliciter provocaverunt incitaverunt sanoque salubri consilio Ligeorum Angliae contrarium reddiderunt consilia sua vana impudenter praeponere affirmare non erubuerunt seu formidaverunt ac si plus habiles essent ad consulendam conservandam Rempublicam quam tota Universitas Regni in unum collecta Ita de illis possit vere dici viri qui turbaverunt terram concusserunt Regnum sub fuco gravitatis totum populum graviter oppresserunt praetextuque solummodo exponendi veteres Leges novas non dicam Leges sed malas consuetudines introduxerunt vomuerunt ita quod per ignorantiam nonnullorum ac per partialitatem aliorum qui vel per munera vel timorem aliquorum potentum innodati fuerunt nulla fuit stabilitas Legum nec alicui de populo Justitiam dignabantur exhibere opera eorum sunt opera nequitiae opus iniquitatis in manibus pedes eorum ad malum currunt festinant ac viam recti nescierunt Quid dicam non est judicium in gressibus suis Quam plurimi liberi homines terrae nostrae fideles Domini Regis quasi viles ultimae servi conditionis diversis Carceribus sine culpa commiserunt ibidem carcerandi quorum nonnulli in carcere fame maerore vinculorum pondere defecerunt extorquerunt pro Arbritrio insuper infinitam pecuniam ab eâ—â—dem pro redemptione sua crumenas aliorum ut suas impregnarent tam à divitibus quam pauperibus exhauserunt ratione quorum incurriverunt odium inexorabile formidabile imprecationes omnium quasi tale incommunicabile privilegium per Chartam detest abilem de non obstante obtinuerunt perquiviserunt ut à lege divina humanaque quasi ad libitum immunes essent Gravamen insuper solitum adhuc sive aliquo modo saevit omnia sunt venalia si non quasi furtiva proh dolor Quid non mortalia pectora cogit Auri sacra fames Ex ore meo contra vos O Impii tremebunda coeli decreta jam auditis Agnitio vultuum vestrorum accusat vos peccatum vestrum quasi Sodoma praedicavistis nec abscondistis vae animae vestrae vae qui condunt leges scribentes injustitiam scripserunt ut opprimerent in judicio pauperes vim facerent causae humilium populi ut essent viduae praeda eorum pupillos diriperent vae qui aedificant domum suam injusticia coenacula sua non in Judicio vae qui concupiverunt agros violenter tulerunt rapuerunt domos oppresserunt virum domum ejus imo virum Haereditatem suam vae Judices qui sicut Lupi vespere non relinquebant ossa in mane Justus Judex adducit Consiliarios in stultum finem Judices in stuporem mox alta voce justum Judicium terrae recipietis His auditis omnium aures tinniebant totaque Communitas ingemuerunt Vide Mat. West Anno 1289. p. 376 li. 13. dicentes heu nobis heu ubi est Angliae toties empta toties concessa toties scripta toties jurata Libertas Alii de Criminalibus sese à visibus populi subtrahentes in locis secretis cum amicis tacite latitaverunt Anno vero 1290. 18. Ed. 1. deprehensis omnibus Angliae Justiciariis de repetundis praeter Jo. Metingham Eliam de Bleckingham quos honoris ergo nominatos volui judicio Parliamenti vindicatum est in alios atque alios carcere exilio fortunarumque omnium dispendio in singulos mulcta gravissima amissione officii Spelmans Glossary p. 1. co 1. 416. alios protulerunt in medium unde merito fere omnes ab officiis depositi amoti unus à terra exulatus alii perpetuis prisonis incarcerati alii que gravibus pecuniarum solutionibus juste adjudicati fuerunt AFter that the King for the space of three Years and more had remained beyond Sea and returned out of Gascoign and France into England he was much vexed and disturbed by the continual clamour both of the Clergy and Laity desiring to be relieved against the Justices and other His Majesties Ministers of several oppressions and injuries done unto them contrary to the good Laws and Customs of the Realm whereupon King Edward by his Royal Letters to the several Sheriffs of England commanded that in all Counties Cities and Market Towns a Proclamation should be made that all who found themselves agrieved should repair to Westminster at the next Parliament and there shew their Grievances where as well the great as the less should receive fit Remedies and speedy Justice according as the King was obliged by the Bond of his Coronation Oath And now that great day was come that day of judging even the Justices and the other Ministers of the King's Council which by no Collusion or Reward no Argument or Art of Pleading they could elude or avoid The Clergy therefore and the People being gathered together and seated in the great Palace of Westminster the Archbishop of Canterbury a man of eminent Piety and as it were a Pillar of the holy Church and the Kingdom rising from his Seat and fetching a profound sigh spoke in this manner Let this Assembly know that we are called together concerning the great and weighty Affairs of the Kingdom too much alas of late disturbed and still out of Order unanimously faithfully and effectually with our Lord the King to treat and ordain Vide Fleta Cap. 17. p. 18 19. Authoritas Officium ordinarii Concilii Regis Ye have all heard the grievous complaints of the most intollerable injuries and oppressions of the daily desolations committed both on Church and State by this corrupt Council of our Lord the King contrary to our great Charters so many and so often purchased and redeemed granted and confirmed to us by the several Oaths of our Lord the King that now is and of our Lords King Henry and John and corroborated by the dreadful thundrings of the sentence of Excommunication against the
days neither one way nor another never knew any suâ—â— persons nor ever had such Communication with any man hitherto I know of no Plot in the World but the Popish Plot and that every man may know as much as I. If I had had such a design as these men have sworn against me to have seiz'd his Majesty either at London or this place at Oxford I take God to witness as I 'm a dying man and upon the terms of my Salvation I know not any one man upon the face of the Earth that would have stood by me and how likely it was that I should do such a thing my self let the whole World judge Dugdale swears That I spoke Treason to him treasonable words in the Coffee-house and in the Barbers shop by the Angel even he could not pretend to see me any where else but it is false and a very unlikely thing that I should speak Treason to him I must confess I was in his company at the Coffee-house and that Barbers shop before I went out of Town but there could be no Communication between us for he was writing at one end of the Room and eating a piece of bread and I lighted a Pipe of Tobacco at the other end and took it till Sir Tho. Player and Sir Rob. Clayton came to me and we went to my Lord Lovelace's out of Town that night so when they came we took horse and went out of Town with the rest For my part I can't sum up my Witnesses I was under most strange Circumstances as ever any man was I was kept Prisoner so close in the Tower that I could have no Conversation with any though I was certain the Popish Lords had it every day there but I could have none I could not tell the Witnesses that were to swear against me I could not tell what it was they swore against me for I could have no Copy of the Indictment nor no way possible to make any preparation to make my Defence as I ought to have done and might have done by Law I had no liberty to do any thing as I am a dying man And as to what Dugdale Smith Turbervile and Heyns swore against me they did swear such Treason that nothing but a mad man would ever have trusted any body with and least of all to Papists every one of them that had been concerned with Plots and Treasons among their own party and under the greatest Tyes and Obligations of Damnation and to be Sainted if they kept it secret and to be damned if they revealed it If these men will not keep things secret for their own Party how could I trust them I take God to witness and do freely acknowledge I have sought my God with Tears several times to inform me if so be I had with any word transgressed at any time I knew not of any part of what they swore against me till such time as I heard it swore against me at the Bar. This is very hard Gentlemen but this is the Truth And there be a great many other strange Reports that I have heard since I have been a Prisoner That I should be a means to convert the Countess of Rochester by bringing one Thompson a Priest to her Truly all that I was concerned in was some fifteen or sixteen years ago I lodged at Col. Vernon's that married my Lady Brookes The Family were Papists the Brookes were Papists and there was this Thompson and I did suppose him a Priest in the House though I never saw him at Popish Service or Worship though I was there half a year but coming afterwards to my Lord Rochester's about some business I had to do for him and several other persons of Quality he sent for me one afternoon from the Parsonage in Adderbury to his House and his Lady and he stood together He sent to me and ask'd me if my Horse were at home said he I would have you carry this Letter to Mr. Thompson if you are at leisure this afternoon My Lord I am at leisure to serve you So I took a Letter from his hand and his Lady 's too as I remember he made an offer that way sealed with his own Seal and carried it to Thompson and delivered it to him and he told me that he would wait upon my Lord for it was for some Lands my Lord did offer to raise Money for some occasions This is the Truth of that Scandal It is said that I had a Priest several years in my House viz. Serjeant that came over from Holland to discover About some ten years ago that very same man came to me but was a stranger to me and he came to me by the name of Dr. Smith a Physician and there was an Apothecary in the Old-baily and a Linnen-draper within Ludgate that came with him they brought him thither and took a Chamber and lay about half a year or three quarters at times by the name of Dr. Smith and as a Physician This is the Truth of that and no otherwise This is the Entertainment of Serjeant So the occasion of my coming to Oxford I do say was voluntary The Parliament-men last Parliament at Westminster and several Lords dined together the day before they sate the last Sessions of Parliament at Wistminster they sent for me to the Sun-Tavern behind the Exchange and when I came the Duke of Monmouth and several Lords were together and I believe above a hundred Parliament-men of the Commons The Duke of Monmouth called me to him and told me he had heard a good Report of me and that I was an honest man and one that may be trusted and they did not know but their Enemies the Papists might have some design to serve them as they did in King James's time by Gun-powder or any other ways And the Duke with several Lords and Commons did desire me to use my utmost skill in searching all places suspected by them which I did perform and from thence I had as I think the popular name of the Protestant Joyner because they had intrusted me before any man in England to do that Office The same Haynes one of them that swore against me had discovered to me and several others as to Macknamar and his Brother and this Ivy who are now all of another stamp That the Parliament was to be destroyed at Oxford and that there was a design to murther my Lord Shaftsbury by Fitzgerald and his Party and that they did endeavour to bring Macknamar over to him and said Then it would be well with him and they would not be long before they had Shaftsbury's life And he made Depositions of this to Sir Geo. Treby as I heard afterwards for I was not with him when it was sworn I wish the Commons of England as well as I wish my own heart and I did not understand but when I serv'd the Parliament I serv'd his Majesty too and let them be miserable that make the Difference
Land to cut off these workers of Iniquity whose Religion is Rebellion whose Faith is Faction whose practice is murthering of Souls and Bodies and to root them out of the Confines of this Kingdom VII All the Judges of England are bound by their Oath 18 Edw. III. 20 Edw. III. Cap. 1.2 and by the duty of their place to disobey all Writs Letters or Commands which are brought to them either under the little Seal or under the great Seal to hinder or delay common Right Are the Judges all bound in an Oath and by their places to break the 13 of the Romans VIII The Engagement of the Lords attending upon the King at York June 13. 1642. which was subscribed by the Lord Keeper and Thirty Nine Peers besides the Lord Chief-Justice Banks and several others of the Privy-Council was in these words We do engage our selves not to Obey any Orders or Commands whatsoever not warranted by the known Laws of the Land Was this likewise an Association against the 13 of the Romans IX A Constable represents the King's person and in the Execution of his Office is within the purview of the 13 of the Romans as all Men grant but in case he so far pervert his Office as to break the Peace and commit Murther Burglary or Robbery on the Highway he may and ought to be Resisted X. The Law of the Land is the best Expositor of the 13 of the Romans Here and in Poland the Law of the Land There XI The 13 of the Romans is receiv'd for Scripture in Poland and yet this is expressed in the Coronation Oath in that Country Quod si Sacramentum meum violavero Incola Regni nullam nobis Obedientiam praestare tenebuntur And if I shall violate my Oath the Inhabitants of the Realm shall not be bound to yield me any Obedience XII The Law of the Land according to Bracton is the highest of all the Higher Powers mentioned in this Text for it is superior to the King and made him King Lib. 3. Cap. 26. Rex habet superiorum Deum item Legem per quam factus est Rex item Curiam suam viz. Comites Barones and therefore by this Text we ought to be subject to it in the first place And according to Melancthon It is the Ordinance of God to which the Higher Powers themselves ought to be subject Vol. 3. In his Commentary on the Fifth Verse Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake He hath these words Neque vero haec tantum pertinent ad Subditos sed etiam ad Magistratum qui cum fiunt Tyranni non minus dissipant Ordinationem Dei quam Seditiosi Ideo ipsorum Conscientia fit rea quia non obediunt Ordinationi Dei id est Legibus quibus debent parere Ideo Comminationes hic positae etiam ad ipsos pertinent Itaque hujus mandati severitas moveat omnes ne violationem Politici status putent esse leve peccatum Neither doth this place concern Subjects only but also the Magistrates themselves who when they turn Tyrants do no less overthrow the Ordinance of God than the Seditious and therefore their Consciences too are guilty for not obeying the Ordinance of God that is the Laws which they ought to obey So that the Threatnings in this place do also belong to them wherefore let the severity of this Command deter all men from thinking the Violation of the Political Constitution to be a light Sin Corollary To destroy the Law and Legal Constitution which is the Ordinance of God by false and arbitrary Expositions of this Text is a greater Sin than to destroy it by any other means For it is Seething the Kid in his Mothers Milk CHAP. IV. Of LAWS I. THere is no Natural Obligation wereby one Man is bound to yield Obedience to another but what is founded in paternal or patriarchal Authority II. All the Subjects of a patriarchal Monarch are Princes of the Blood III. All the people of England are not Princes of the Blood IV. No Man who is Naturally Free can be bound but by his own Act and Deed. V. Publick Laws are made by publick consent and they therefore bind every man because every man's consent is involved in them VI. Nothing but the same Authority and Consent which made the Laws can Repeal Alter or Explain them VII To judge and determine Causes against Law without Law or where the Law is obscure and uncertain is to assume Legislative power VIII Power assumed without a Man's consent cannot bind him as his own Act and Deed. IX The Law of the Land is all of a piece and the same Authority which made one Law made all the rest and intended to have them all Impartially Executed X. Law on One Side is the Back-Sword of Justice XI The Best Things when Corrupted are the Worst and the wild Justice of a State of Nature is much more desirable than Law perverted and over-rul'd into Hemlock and Oppression Copies of Two Papers Written by the Late King CHARLES II. Published by His MAJESTIES Command Printed in the Year 1686. The First Paper THE Discourse we had the other Day I hope satisfied you in the main that Christ can have but one Church here upon Earth and I believe that it is as visible as that the Scripture is in Print That none can be that Church but that which is called the Roman Catholick Church I think you need not trouble your self with entring into that Ocean of particular Disputes when the main and in truth the only Question is Where that Church is which we profess to believe in the two Creeds We declare there to believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church and it is not left to every phantastical man's head to believe as he pleases but to the Church to whom Christ left the power upon Earth to govern us in matters of Faith who made these Creeds for our Directions It were a very Irrational thing to make Laws for a Country and leave it to the Inhabitants to be the Interpreters and Judges of those Laws For then every man will be his own Judge and by consequence no such thing as either right or wrong Can we therefore suppose that God Almighty would leave us at those uncertainties as to give us a Rule to go by and to leave every man to be his own Judge I do ask any ingenuous man whether it be not the same thing to follow our own Fancy or to interpret the Scripture by it I would have any man shew me where the power of deciding matters of Faith is given to every particular man Christ left his power to his Church even to forgive Sins in Heaven and left his Spirit with them which they exercised after his Resurrection First by his Apostles in these Creeds and many years after by the Council at Nice where that Creed was made that is called by that name and by the power which they
after the Fifth Century the Doctrine of one Individual Essence was received If you will be farther informed concerning this Father Petau will satisfie you as to the first Period before the Council of Nice and the leared Dr. Cudworth as to the second In all which particulars it appears how variable a thing Tradition is And upon the whole matter the examining Tradition thus is still a searching among Books and here is no living Judge XII If then the Authority that must decide Controversies lies in the Body of the Pastors scattered over the World which is the last retrenchment here as many and as great Scruples will arise as we found in any of the former Heads Two difficulties appear at first view the one is How can we be assured that the present Pastors of the Church are derived in a just Succession from the Apostles there are no Registers extant that prove this So that we have nothing for it but some Histories that are so carelesly writ that we find many mistakes in them in other Matters and they are so different in the very first links of that Chain that immediately succeeded the Apostles that the utmost can be made of this is that here is an Historical Relation somewhat doubtful but here is nothing to found our Faith on so that if a Succession from the Apostles times is necessary to the Constitution of that Church to which we must submit our selves we know not where to find it besides that the Doctrine of the necessity of the Intention of the Minister to the Validity of a Sacrament throws us into inextricable difficulties I know they generally say that by the Intention they do not mean the inward Acts of the Minister of the Sacrament but only that it must appear by his outward deportment that he is in earnest going about a Sacrament and not doing a thing in jest and this appeared so reasonable to me that I was sorry to find our Divines urge it too much till turning over the Rubricks that are at the beginning of the Missal I found upon the head of the Intention of the Minister that if a Priest has a number of Hosties before him to be consecrated and intends to Consecrate them all except one in that case that Vagrant Exception falls upon them all it not being affixed to any one and it is defined that he Consecrates none at all Here it is plain that the secret Acts of a Priest can defeat the Sacrament so this overthrows all certainty concerning a Succession But besides all this we are sure that the Greek Churches have a much more uncontested Succession than the Latines So that a Succession cannot direct us And if it is necessary to seek out the Doctrines that are universally received this is not possible for a private man to know So that in ignorant Countries where there is little Study the people have no other certainty concerning their Religion but what they take from their Curate and Confessor since they cannot examine what is generally received So that it must be confessed that all the Arguments that are brought for the necessity of a constant infallible Judge turn against all those of the Church of Rome that do not acknowledge the Infallibility of the Pope for if he is not infallible they have no other Judge that can pretend to it It were also easie to shew that some Doctrines have been as Universally received in some Ages as they have been rejected in others which shews that the Doctrine of the present Church is not always a sure measure For five Ages together the Doctrine of the Pope's Power to depose Heretical Princes was received without the least Opposition and this cannot be doubted by any that knows what has been the State of the Church since the end of the Eleventh Century and yet I believe few Princes would allow this notwithstanding all the concurring Authority of so many Ages to fortisie it I could carry this into a great many other Instances but I single out this because it is a point in which Princes are naturally extream sensible Upon the whole matter it can never enter into my mind that God who has made Man a Creature that naturally enquires and reasons and that feels as sensible a pleasure when he can give himself a good account of his Actions as one that sees does perceive in comparison to a blind man that is led about and that this God that has also made Religion on design to perfect this Humane Nature and to raise it to the utmost height to which it can arrive has contrived it to be dark and to be so much beyond the penetration of our Faculties that we cannot find out his mind in those things that are necessary for our Salvation and that the Scriptures that were writ by plain men in a very familiar Stile and addrest without any Discrimination to the Vulgar should become such an unintelligible Book in these Ages that we must have an infallible Judge to expound it and when I see not only Popes but even some Bodies that pass for General Councils have so expounded many passages of it and have wrested them so visibly that none of the Modern Writers of that Church pretend to excuse it I say I must freely own to you that when I find that I need a Commentary on dark passages these will be the last persons to whom I will address my self for it Thus you see how fully I have opened my mind to you in this matter I have gone over a great deal of ground in as few words as is possible because hints I know are enough for you I thank God these Considerations do fully satisfie me and I will be infinitely joyed if they have the same effect on you I am yours THis Letter came to London with the return of the first Post after his late Majesties Papers were sent into the Country some that saw it liked it well and wished to have it publick and the rather because the Writer did not so entirely confine himself to the Reasons that were in those Papers but took the whole Controversie to task in a little compass and yet with a great variety of Reflections And this way of examining the whole matter without following those Papers word for word or the finding more fault than the common concern of this Cause required seemed more agreeing to the respect that is due to the Dead and more particularly to the Memory of so great a Prince but other considerations made it not so easie nor so adviseable to procure a License for the Printing this Letter it has been kept in private hands till now those who have boasted much of the Shortness of the late King's Papers and of the length of the Answers that have been made to them will not find so great a disproportion between them and this Answer to them A Brief Account of particulars occurring at the happy Death of our late Soveraign Lord King Charles
II. in regard to Religion faithfully related by his then Assistant Mr. Jo. Hudleston UPON Thursday the Fifth of February 1685. Between Seven and Eight a Clock in the Evening I was sent for in haste to the Queens Back-stairs at Whitehall and desired to bring with me all things necessary for a dying Person Accordingly I came and was order'd not to stir from thence till further notice being thus obliged to wait and not having had time to bring along with â—â—e the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar I was in some Anxiety how to procure it In this conjuncture the Divine Providence so disposing Father Bento de Lewis a Portugez came thither and understanding the circumstance I was in readily profer'd himself to go to St. James's and bring the Most Holy Sacrament along with him Soon after his departure I was call'd into the King's Bed-Chamber where approaching to the Bed side and kneeling down I in brief presented his Majesty with what Service I could perform for God's Honour and the happiness of his Soul at this last Moment on which Eternity depends The King then declared himself That he desired to die in the Faith and Communion of the Holy Roman Catholick Church That he was most heartily sorry for all the Sins of his life past and particularly for that he had deferred his Reconciliation so long That through the Merits of Christ's Passion he hoped for Salvation That he was in Charity with all the World That with all his Heart he Pardon'd his Enemies and desired Pardon of all those whom he had any wise offended and that if it pleased God to spare him longer life he would amend it detesting all Sin I then advertis'd his Majesty of the benefit and necessity of the Sacrament of Penance which Advertisement the King most willingly embracing made an exact Confession of his whole Life with exceeding Compunction and Tenderness of Heart which ended I desired him in farther sign of Repentance and true sorrow for his Sins to say with me this little short Act of Contrition O my Lord God with my whole Heart and Soul I detest all the Sins of my Life past for the Love of Thee whom I love above all things and I firmly purpose by thy Holy Grace never to offend thee more Amen Sweet Jesus Amen Into thy Hands Sweet Jesus I commend my Soul Mercy Sweet Jesus Mercy This he pronounced with a clear and audible voice which done and his Sacramental Penance admitted I gave him Absolution After some time thus spent I asked his Majesty if he did not also desire to have the other Sacraments of the Holy Church administred unto him He reply'd By all means I desire to be partaker of all the helps and Succours necessary and expedient for a Catholick Christian in my condition I added and doth not your Majesty also desire to receive the Pretious Body and Blood of our dear Saviour Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist His Answer was this If I am worthy pray fail not to let me have it I then told him it would be brought to him very speedily and desired his Majesty that in the interim he would give me leave to proceed to the Sacrament of Extreme Unction he replyed with all my Heart I then Anoyled him which as soon as perform'd I was call'd to the door whither the Blessed Sacrament was now brought and delivered to me Then returning to the King I entreated His Majesty that he would prepare and dispose himself to receive At which the King raising up himself said let me meet my Heavenly Lord in a better posture than in my Bed But I humbly begg'd His Majesty to repose himself God Almighty who saw his Heart would accept of his good intention The King then having again recited the fore-mentioned Act of Contrition with me he received the most Holy Sacrament for his Viaticum with all the Symptoms of Devotion imaginable The Communion being ended I Read the usual Prayers termed the Recommendation of the Soul appointed by the Church for Catholicks in his Condition After which the King desired the Act of Contrition O my Lord God c. to be repeated this done for his last Spiritual encouragement I said Your Majesty hath now received the Comfort and Benefit of all the Sacraments that a good Christian ready to depart out of this World can have or desire Now it rests only That you think upon the Death and Passion of our Dear Saviour Jesus Christ of which I present unto you this Figure shewing him a Crucifix lift up therefore the Eyes of your Soul and represent to your self your sweet Saviour here Crucified Bowing down his Head to kiss you His Arms stretched out to Embrace you His Body and Members all Bloody and Pale with Death to Redeem you And as you see him Dead and fixed upon the Cross for your Redemption So have his Remembrance fixed and fresh in your Heart beseech him with all humility That his most precious Blood may not be shed in vain for you And that it will please him by the Merits of his bitter Death and Passion to pardon and forgive you all your Offences and finally to receive your Soul into his Blessed hands and when it shall please him to take it out of this Transitory World to grant you a joyful Resurrection and an Eternal Crown of Glory in the next In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen So Recommending His Majesty on my Knees with all the Transport of Devotion I was able to the Divine Mercy and Protection I withdrew out of the Chamber In Testimony of all which I nave hereunto subscribed my Name JO. HVDLESTON Some REFLECTIONS on His Majesties Proclamation of the Twelfth of February 1686 7. for a Toleration in Scotland together with the said Proclamation I. THE Preamble of a Proclamation is oft writ in hast and is the flourish of some wanton Pen but one of such an extraordinary nature as this is was probably more severely Examined there is a new designation of his Majesties Authority here set forth of his Absolute Power which is so often repeated that it deserves to be a little searched into Prerogative Royal and Soveraign Authority are Terms already received and known but for this Absolute Power as it is a new Term so those who have coined it may make it signifie what they will The Roman Law speaks of Princeps Legibus solutus and Absolute in its natural signification importing the being without all Ties and Restraints then the true meaning of this seems to be that there is an Inherent Power in the King which can neither be restrained by Laws Promises nor Oaths for nothing less than the being free from all these renders a Power Absolute II. If the former Term seemed to stretch our Allegiance that which comes after it is yet a step of another nature tho' one can hardly imagine what can go beyond Absolute Power
meet for the meaning of this seems plain that His Majesty is resolved that they shall never meet till he receives such Assurances in a new round of Closetting that he shall be put out of doubt concerning it VII I will not enter into the Dispute concerning Liberty of Conscience and the Reasons that may be offered for it to a Session of Parliament for there is scarce any one point that either with relation to Religion or Politicks affords a greater variety of matter for Reflection and I make no doubt to say that there is abundance of Reason to oblige Parliaments to review all the Penal Laws either with relation to Papists or to Dissenters but I will take the boldness to add one thing that the King 's Suspending of Laws strikes at the root of this whole Government and subverts it quite for if there is any thing certain with relation to English Government it is this that the Executive Power of the Law is entirely in the King and the Law to fortifie him in the Management of it has cloathed him with a vast Prerogative and made it unlawful on any pretence whatsoever to resist him whereas on the other hand the Legislative Power is not so entirely in the King but that the Lords and Commons have such a share in it that no Law can either be made repealed or which is all one suspended but by their consent so that the placing this Legislative Power singly in the King is a subversion of this whole Government since the Essence of all Governments consists in the Subjects of the Legislative Authority Acts of Violence or Injustice committed in the Executive part are such things that all Princes being subject to them the peace of mankind were very ill secured if it were not unlawful to resist upon any pretence taken from any ill Administrations in which as the Law may be doubtful so the Facts may be uncertain and at worst the publick Peace must always be more valued than any private Oppressions or Injuries whatsoever But the total Subversion of a Government being so contrary to the Trust that is given to the Prince who ought to execute it will put men upon uneasie and dangerous Inquiries which will turn little to the Advantage of those who are driving matters to such a doubtful and desperate Issue VIII If there is any thing in which the Exercise of the Legislative Power seems indispensable it is in those Oaths of Allegiance and Tests that are thought necessary to Qualifie men either to be admitted to enjoy the protection of the Law or to bear a share in the Government for in these the Security of the Government is chiefly concerned and therefore the total Extinction of these as it is not only a Suspension of of them but a plain repealing of them so it is a Subverting of the whole Foundation of our Government For the Regulation that King and Parliament had set both for the Subjects having the protection of the State by the Oath of Allegiance and for a share in the places of Trust by the Tests is now pluckt up by the roots when it is declared That these shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken or subscribed by any persons whatsoever for it is plain that this is no Suspension of the Law but a formal repeal of it in as plain words as can be conceived IX His Majesty says that the Benefit of the Service of all his Subjects is by the Law of Nature inseparably annexed to and inherent in his Sacred Person It is somewhat strange that when so many Laws that we all know are suspended the Law of Nature which is so hard to be found out should be cited but the Penners of this Declaration had best let that Law lie forgotten among the rest and there is a scurvy Paragraph in it concerning self-Preservation that is capable of very unacceptable Glosses It is hard to tell what Section of the Law of Nature has markt either such a Form of Government or such a Family for it And if his Majesty renounces his Pretensions to our Allegiance as founded on the Laws of England and betakes himself to this Law of Nature he will perhaps find the Counsel was a little too rash but to make the most that can be the Law of Nations or Nature does indeed allow the Governours of all Societies a Power to serve themselves of every Member of it in the cases of Extream Danger but no Law of Nature that has been yet heard of will conclude that if by special Laws a sort of men have been disabled from all Imployments that a Prince who at his Coronation Swore to maintain those Laws may at his pleasure extinguish all these Disabilities X. At the end of the Declaration as in a Poscript His Majesty assures his Subjects that he will maintain them in their Properties as well in Church and Abbey Lands as other Lands but the chief of all their Properties being the share that they have by their Representatives in the Legislative Power this Declaration which breaks thro' that is no great Evidence that the rest will be maintained and to speak plainly when a Coronation Oath is so little remembred other Promises must have a proportioned degree of Credit given to them as for the Abbey Lands the keeping them from the Church is according to the Principles of that Religion Sacriledge and that is a mortal Sin and there can no Absolution be given to any who continue in it and so this Promise being an Obligation to maintain men in a mortal Sin is nul and void of it self Church-Lands are also according to the Doctrine of their Canonists so immediately God's Right that the the Pope himself is the only Administrator and Dispencer but is not the master of them he can indeed make a truck for God or let them so low that God shall be an easie Landlord but he cannot alter God's Property nor translate the Right that is in him to Sacrilegious Laymen and Hereticks XI One of the Effects of this Declaration will be the setting on foot a new run of Addresses over the Nation for there is nothing how impudent and base soever of which the abject flattery of a slavish Spirit is not capable It must be confest to the Reproach of the Age that all those strains of flattery among the Romans that Tacitus sets forth with so much just scorn are modest things compared to what this Nation has produced within these seven Years only if our Flattery has come short of the Refinedness of the Romans it has exceeded theirs as much in its loathed Fulsomeness The late King set out a Declaration in which he gave the most solemn Assurances possible of his adhering to the Church of England and to the Religion established by Law and of his Resolution to have frequent Parliaments upon which the whole Nation fell as it were into Raptures of Joy and Flattery but though he lived four
pinches he is really concerned that Ireland is not altogether an independent Kingdom and in the Hands of its own Natives he longs till the Day when the English Yoak of Boudage shall be thrown off Of this he gives us broad Hints when he tells us That England is the only Nation in the World that impedes their Trade That a Man of English Interest will never Club with them as he phrases it or project any thing which may tend to their Advantage that will be the least Bar or Prejudice to the Trade of England Now why a Man of English Interest unless he will allow none of that Nation to be an able and just Minister to his Prince should be partial to ruine one Kingdom to avoid the least Inconveniency of the other contrary to the positive Commands of his King I cannot imagine For since it is the Governour 's Duty to Rule by Law and such Orders as he shall receive from His Majesty I know no Grounds for our Authors Arraigning the whole English Nation in saying That no one Man among them of what Perswasion soever will be true either to the Laws or his Majesty's positive Orders which shall seem repugnant to the smallest Conveniencies of England This is a glory reserved only as it seems for his Hero my Lord Tyrconnel The Imbargo upon the West India Trade and the Prohibition of Irish Cattel are the two Instances given It were to be wished indeed for the Good of that Kingdom that both were taken off and I question not but to see a Day wherein it shall seem proper to the King and an English Parliament to Repeal those Laws a Day wherein they will consider us as their own Flesh and Blood a Colony of their Kindred and Relations and take care of our Advantages with as little Grudging and Repining I am sure they have the same and no stronger Reason as Cornwal does at Yorkshire There are Instances in sevral Islands in the East-Indies as far distant as Ireland is from England that make up but one Kingdom and govern'd by the same Laws but the Wisdom of England will not judge it time fitting to do this till we of Ireland be one Mans Children either in Reality or Affection we wish the latter and have made many Steps and Advances towards it if the Natives will not meet us half way we cannot help it let the Event lie at their own Doors But after all I see not how those Instances have any manner of relation to the English Chief Governors in Ireland they were neither the Causes Contrivers nor Promoters of those Acts. The King and an English Parliament did it without consulting them if they had 't is forty to one my Lord of Ormond and the Council whose Stake is so great in Ireland would have hindred it as much as possible Our Author's Argument proves indeed That 't is detrimental to Ireland to be a subordinate Kingdom to England and 't is plain 't is that he drives at let him disguise it as much as he will but the conclusion he would prove cannot at all be deduced from it Shortly I expect he will speak plainer and in down right Terms propose That the two Kingdoms may be governed by different Kings Matters seem to grow ripe for such a dilloyal Proposition If these Acts and not the Subjection to an English King were the Grievances they would be so to the British there as well as to the Natives but though we wish them Repealed we do not repine in the mean time if the British who are the most considerable Trading part of that Nation and consequently feel the ill Effects of those Acts more sensibly can be contented why the Natives should not acquiesce in it unless it be for the forementioned Reasons I cannot see Our Author allows that there are different ways of obeying the King 't is a Point gained for us and proves there may be such a Partiality exercised in executing his Majesties Commands as may destroy the very Intent of them and yet taking the Matter strictly the King is obeyed but a good Minister will consider his Masters Intentions and not make use of a Word that may have a double Sence to the Ruine of a Kingdom nor of a Latitude of Power wherewith he is intrusted to the Destruction of the most considerable Party in it Far be it from us to think it was his Majesties Intentions to depopulate a flourishing Country to undo Multitudes of laborious thriving Families in it to diminish and destroy his own Revenue to put the Sword into Mad-mens Hands who are sworn Enemies to the British No! His Majesty who is willing that Liberty of Trade as well as Conscience should equally flourish in all parts of his Dominions that recommends himself to his Subjects by his Impartiality in distributing Offices of Trust and from that Practice raises his greatest Argument to move his People to Repeal the Penal Laws never intended that some general Commands of his should be perverted to the Destruction of that People his Intention is to protect His Majesty Great as he is cannot have two Consciences one calculated for the Latitude of England another for Ireland We ought therefore to conclude in respect to the King that his Commands have been ill understood and worse executed and this may be done as our Author confesses and the King undoubtedly obeyed but such an Obedience is no better than a Sacrifice of the best Subjects the King has in this Kingdom Our Author has given very good Reasons why the Natives may be well content with their present Governor but I cannot forbear laughing at those he has found out to satisfie the poor British with My Lord Tyrconnel's most Excellent Charitable English Lady His high sounding Name TALBOT in great Letters a Name that no less frightens the Poor English in Ireland then it once did the French a Name which because he is in possession of I will not dispute his Title to but I have been credibly informed that he has no relation to that most Noble Family of Shrewsbury though my Lord Tyrconnel presumes to bear the same Coat of Arms a Name in short which I hope in time Vox praetereae nihil A Second Reason is drawn from his Education We have heard and it has never yet been contradicted that my Lord Tyrconnel from his Youth upwards has constantly born Arms against the Brittish If our Author will assure us of the contrary I am apt to believe â—i Excellency will give him no thanks who lays the foundation of his Merit upon the Basis of his constant adherence to the Iâ—ish Party What use of Consolation can be drawn from this head by the Brittish is beyond my skill to conâ—preâ—â—nd A third Reason is drawn from his Stake in England the Author would do well to shew us in what Country this lies that we may know where to find Reprisals hereafter for since he offers this for our Security 't is fit
the Pamphlet whereof I have here given you my thoughts was more than a Fortnight on the way or else you had received this sooner I am Dubâ—â— 1688. SIR Your most Humble Servant A PLAIN ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTION Laid to the CHARGE of the Church of England THE Desire of Liberty to serve God in that Way and Manner which Men judge to be most acceptable to him is so Natural and Reasonable that they cannot but be extreamly provoked against those who would force them to serve him in any other But the Conceit withal which most Men have that their Way of Serving God is the only acceptable Way naturally inclines them when they have Power to use all Means to constrain all other to serve him in that way only So that Liberty is not more desired by all at one time than it is denied by the very same Persons at another Put them into different Conditions and they are not of the same Mind but have different Inclinations in one State from what they have in another As will be apparent by a short View of what hath passed in these Churches and Kingdoms within our Memory II. Before the late Civil Wars there were very grievous Complaints made of the Bishops that they pressed the Ceremonies so strictly as to inflict heavy Censures upon those called Puritans who could not in Conscience conform to them Now no sooner had those very Persons who thus complaned got their Liberty to do as they pleased but they took it quite away from the other and suquestred all those who would not enter into their Holy League and Covenant for the reforming all things according to the Model which they propounded Nay they were not willing to bear with Five Dissenting Brethren among themselves who could not conform to the Presbyterial Government And when these Dissenting Brethren commonly known by the Name of Independants had got a Party strong enough which carried all before them they would not allow the use of the Common Prayer in any Parish no not to the King himself in his own Chappel not grant to one of the old Clergy so much Liberty as to teach a School c. Which things I do not mention God knows to reproach those who were guilty of them but only to put them in mind of their own Failings that they may be humbled for them and not insult over the Church of England nor severely upbraid them with that which when time was they acted with a higher Hand themselves If I should report all that the Presbyterians did here and in Scotland and all that the Independants did here and in New England it would not be thought that I exceed the Truth when I say they have been more Guilty of this Fault than those whom they now charge with it Which doth not excuse the Church of England it must be confessed but doth in some Measure mitigate her Fault For the Conformable Clergy having met with such very hard Usage in that disinal Time wherein many of them were oppressed above Measure no wonder if the Smart of it then fresh in their Minds something imbittered their Spirits when God was preased by a wonderful Revolution to put them into Power again III. Then a stricter Act of Vnifamity was made and several Laws pursuant to it for the enforeing that Uniformity by severe Penalties But let it be remembred that none were by those Laws constrained to come to Church but had Liberty left them to serve God at Home and some Company with them in their own Way And let it be farther remembred that the Reâ—ion why they were denied their Liberty of meeting in greater Assemblies was because such Assemblies were represented as greatly endangering the publick Peace and Safety as the Words are in the very first Act of this Nature against â—uakers in the Year 1662. Let any one read the Oxford Act as it is commonly called made in the Year 1665. and that at Westminster in the Year 16â—â— and he will find them intended against Sedâ—â—ous Conventicles That is they wâ—â—â— made them were perswâ—dâ—d by the Jâ—suâ— Iâ—terest at first to look upon such Meetings as Nurseries of Sedition where bad Principles were infused into Mens Minds destructive to the Civil Government If it had not been for this it doth not appear that the Contrivers of these Laws were inclined to such Severities as were thereby enacted but the Nâ—nconformists might have enjoyed a larger Liberty in Religion It was not Religion alone which was considered and prerended but the publick Peace and Settlement with respect to which they were tyed up so straitly in the Exercise of their Religion Which to deal clearly I do not believe would have raught Rebellion but this was constantly insinuated by the Court Agents and it is no wonder if the Parliament who remembred how the Ministers of that Perswasion though indeed from the then Appearance of Popery had been the Principal Incouragers of that Defensive War against the King were easily made to believe that they still retained the same Principles and would propagate them if they were suffered among the People Certainly it is also that the Court made it their Care to have those Acts passed though at the same time they hindred their Execution that they might keep up both Parties in the height of their Animosities and especially that they might make the Church of England be both hated and despised by the Dissenters IV. Thus things continued for some time till wise Men began to see into the Secret and think of a Reconciliation But it was always hindred by the Court who never thought of giving Liberty by a Law but only by the Prerogative which could as casâ—ly take it away There was a time for instance when a Comprehension c. was projected by several great Men both in Church and State for the taking as many as possible into Union with us and providing Ease for the rest Which so netled the late King that meeting with the then Arch-bishop of Canterbury he said to him as I perfectly remember What my Lord you are for a Comprehension To which he making such a Reply as signified he heard some were about it No said the King I will keep the Church of England pure and unmixed that is never suffer a Reconciliation with the Dissenters And when the Lords and Commons also had not many years ago passed a Bill for the Repealing of the most heavy of all the Penal Laws against Dissenters viz. the Statute of 35 Eliz. 1. which by the Parliament is made against the Wicked and dangerous Practices of Seditiâ—â—â— Sectaries and disloyal Persons his late Majesty so dealt with the Clerk of the Parliament that it was shuffled away and could not be found when it was to have been presented to him among other Bills for his Royal Consent unto it A notable Token of the Abhorrence the Court then had of all Penal Laws and of their great Kindness to Dissenters V. Who may
the Face to turn them again upon you after they have made all this Noise for Liberty And the Church of England you may be assured will not any more trouble you but when a Protestand Prince shall come will joyn in the Healing of all our Breaches by removing all things out of the way which have long hindred that blessed Work They cannot meet together in a Body to give you this Assurance how should they without the Kings Authority so to do but every particular Person that I have discoursed withal which are not a few and you your selves would do well to ask them when you meet them profess that they see an absolute Necessity of making an end of these Differences that have almost undone us and will no longer contend to bring all Men to one Vniformity but promote an Vniform Liberty Do not imagine I intend to give meer Words I meâ—n honestly such a regular Liberty as will be the Beauty and Honour not the Blot and Discredit of our Religion To such a Temper the Archbishop of Canterbury with several other Bishops of his Province and their Clergy have openly declared they are willing to come And the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England have never been know to act deceitfully Our Religion will not at any time allow them to equivecate nor to give good VVords without a Meaning much less at such a time as this when our Religion is in great danger and we have nothing to trust unto but Gods Protection of sincere Persons Let Integrity and Vprightness preserve us is their constant Prayer They can hope for no Help from Heaven if they should prevaricate with Men. God they know would desert them if they should go about to delude their Brethren And they are not so void of common Sense as to adventure to incur his most high Displeasure when they have nothing to rely upon but his Favour In short Trust to those who own you for their Brethren as you do them for though they have been angry Brethren yet there is hope of Reconciliation between such near Relations But put no Confidence in those who not only utterly disown any such Relation to you but have ever treated you with an implacable Hatred as their most mortal Enemies unto whom it is impossible they should be reconciled Prov. 12.19 20. The Lips of Truth shall be established for ever but a lying tongue is but for a mâ—ment Lying Lips are an Abomination to the Lord but they that deal truly are his Delight Abby and other Church-Lands not yet assured to such Possessors as are Roman Catholicks Dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of that Religion SInce it is universally agreed on that so great a Matter as the total Alienation of all the Abby-Lands c. in England can never be made legal and valid and such as will satisfie the reasonable Doubts and Scruples of a religious and conscientions Person except it be confirm'd by the Supreme Authority in this Church t is evident that the Protestants who assert the Church of England to be Autokephalos and such as allows of no Foreign Jurisdiction or Appeals having had these Lands confirmed to them by the King as Head of the Chuech the Convocation as the Church Representative and by the King and Parliament as the Supreme Legislative Power in this Realm have these Alienations made as valid to them as any Power on Earth can make them but the Members of the Church of Rome who maintain a Foreign and Supreme Jurisdiction either in a General Council or in the Bishop of Rome or both together cannot have these Alienations confirm'd to them without the Consent of one or both of these Superior Jurisdictions If therefore I shall make it appear that these Alienations in England were never confirm'd by either I do not see how any Roman Catholick in England can without Sacriledge retain them and his Religion together As to the first of these since there hath been no Council from the first Alienation of Abby-Lands in England to this Day that pretends to be general but that of Trent we need only look into that for the Satisfaction of such Roman Catholicke as esteem a General Council above the Bishop of Rome And I am sure that that Council is so far from confirming these Abby-Lands to the present Possessors that it expresly denounceth them accursed that detain them Sess 22. Decret de Ref. Cap. 11. Si quem c. If Covetousness the Root of all Evil shall so far possess any Person whatsoever whether of the Clergy or Laity though he be an Emperor or a King as that by Force Fear or Fraud or any Art or Colour whatsoever he presume to convert to his own Use and usurp the Jurisdiction Goods Estates Fruits Profits or Emoluments whatever of any Church or any Benefice Secular or Regular Hospital or Religious House or shall hinder that the Profits of the said Houses be not received by those to whom they do of right belong let him lie under an Anathema till the said Jurisdiction Goods Estates Rents and Prosits which he hath possessed and invaded or which have come to him any manner of way be restored to the Church and after that have Absolution from the Bishop of Rome So great a Terror did this strike into the English Papists that were Possessors of Church-Lands against whom this Anathema seems particularly directed that many of the zealous Papists began to think of Restitution and Sir William Peters notwithstanding his private Bull of Absolution from Pope Juâ—â—us the Fourth was so much startled at it as that the very next Year he endowed eight new Fellowships in Exeter-Colledge in Oxford Again the same Council Sess 25. Decret de Râ—f c. 2 â— Cupiens Sancta Synodus c. Decreeth and commandeth that all the Holy Ca 〈◊〉 and General Councils and Apostolick Sanctions in Favour of Ecclesiastical Persons and the Liberties of the Church and against those that violate them be exactly observed by eveâ—y 〈◊〉 and doth farther admonish the Emperor Kings Princes and all Persons of what Estate soever that they would observe the Rights of the Church as the Commands of God and defend them by their particular Patronage nor suffer them to be invaded by any Lords or Gâ—ntlemen whaâ—soever but severely punish all those who hinder the Liâ—â—wâ—â—ies Immâ—â—ities and Jurildictions of the Church and that they would imitate those excellent Princes who by their Authority and Bounty encreased the Revenues of the Church so far were they from suffering them to be invadâ—â— and in this let every one sedulously perform his part c. And now after so full and express Declaration of the Council of Trent I do not â—â—e how any of those Râ—man Catholicks who esteem a general Council to be the Supreme Authority in the Church and receive the Trent Council as such can any way excuse themselves in point of Conscience from these heavy Curses that are there denounc'd against all those
any thing clause or sentence in the said Act contained to the contrary â—â—ithstanding Sect. 3. Provided always and it is hereby Enacted That neither this Act nor any thing herein conâ—â—ined shall extend or be construed to ravive or give Force to the said Branch of the said Statute wade in the said First Year of the Reign of the said Late Queen Elizabeth mentioned in the said Act if Parliament made in the Seventeenth Year of the Reign of the said King Charles but that the said Branch of the said Statute made in the said First Year of the Reign of the said Late Queen Elizabeth scall stand and be Repealed in such sort as if this Act had never been made Sect. 4. Provided always and it is hereby Enacted That it shall not be lawful for any Arch-bishop Bishop Vicar-General Chancellor Commissary or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or Minister or any other person having or exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to Tender or Administer unto any Person whatsoever the Oath usually called Ex Officio or any other Oath whereby such person to whom the same is tendred or administred may be charged or compelled to confess or accuse or to purge him or herself of any Criminal matter or thing whereby he or she may be liable to Censure or Punishment any thing in this Statute or any other Law Custom or Vsage heretofore to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding Sect. 5. Provided always That this Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend or be construed to extend to give unto any Arch Bishop Bishop or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or other person or persons aforesaid any Power or Authority to Exercise Execute Inflict or Determine any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Censure or Coertion which they might not by Law have done before the Year of our Lord 1639. 2. Nor to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclefiastical Matters and Affairs nor to confirm the Canons made in the Year 1640. nor any of them nor any other Ecclesiastical Laws or Canons not formerly confirmed allowed or enacted by Parliament or by the established Laws of the Land as they stood in the Year of our Lord 1639. From the Title of the Act and the Act it self considered I gather First That it is an Explanatory Act of the 17th of Car. 1. as to one particular Branch of it and not introductive of any new Law Secondly That the Occasion of making it was not from any Doubt that did arise VVhether the High Commission Court were taken away or whether the Crown had Power to erect any such like Court for the future but from a Doubt that was made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and Proceedings in Causes Ecclefiastical was taken away whereby Justice in Ecclesiastical Matters was obstructed and this Doubt did arise from a Clause in 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. Sect. 4. herein mentioned to be recited in the said Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Thirdly That this Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as appears upon the Face of it was made to the intent the ordinary Jurisdiction which the Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persens had always exercised under the Crown might not be infringed but not to restore to the Crown the power of Delegating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Letters Patents to Lay persons or any others and as to this nothing can be plainer than the VVords of the Act it self Sect. 2. Whereby 17 Car. 1. is repealed but takes particular care to except what concerned the High Commission Court or the new Erection of some such Court by Commission Neither did the Law-makers think this Exception in that Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Sect. 2. to be sufficient but to put the Matter out of all doubt in the Third Section of the same Statute It is provided and Enacted That neither that Act nor any thing therein contained should extend or be construed to revive or give force to the Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. Sect. 18. but that the same Branch shâ—â—â— stand absolutely Repealed And if so then the power of the Crown to delegate the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is wholly taken away for it was vested in the Crown by 1 Eliz. 1. and taken away by 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. and is in no manner restored by 13 Car. 2.12 or any other But there may arise an Objection from the VVords in the Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. that saith That that Act shall not extend to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs VVhence some Men would gather that the same power still remains in the Crown that was in it before 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. To which Objection I give this Answer That every Law is to be so constructed that it may not be Felo de se and that for the Honour of the Legislators King Lords and Comment Now I would appeal to the Gentlemen themselves that assert this Doctrine VVhether they can so construe the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as they pretend to do without offering Viâ—lence to their own Reason For when the 1 Car. 1. ca. 11. had absolutely repealed the Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. that vested the power in the Crown of Delegating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Enacts That no such Commission shall be for the future and the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Repeals the 17 Car. 1. ca. 12. except what relates to that particular Branch there can no more of the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs be saved by the saving in the 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. but what was left in the Crown by 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And now I hope I have sufficiently evinced That all the Proceedings before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are CORAM NON JVDICE and therefore have sufficient Reason to believe That the same would never have been set on foot by his present Majesty who had always the Character of JAMES the Just and hath promised upon his Royal VVord That he will invade no Mans Property had he not been advised thereunto by them who are better versed in the Canons of the Church of ROME than in the Laws that relate to the CROWN and CHURCH of ENGLAND A LETTER Writ by Mijn Heer Fagel Pensioner of Holland to Mr. James Stewart Advocate Giving an Account of the Prince and Princes of Orange's Thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws SIR I Am extream sorry that my ill health hath so long hindred me from Answering those Letters in which you so earnestly desired to know of me what their Highnesses thoughts are concerning the repeal of the Penal Laws and more particularlarly of that concerning the Test I beg you to assure your self that I will deal very plainly with you in this matter and without reserve since you say that your Letters were writ by the King's knowledge and allowance I must
who had lived and died a cordial and zealous Protestant and whosoever had muttered any thing to the contrary would have been branded for a Villain and an execrable person But with what a scent and odor must it recommend his Memory to them to consider his having not onely lived and died in the Communion of the Church of Rome in contradiction to all his publick Speeches solemn Declarations and highest Asseverations to his People in Parliament but his participating from time to time of the Sacrament as Administred in the Church of England while in the interim he had Abjured our Religion stood reconciled to the Church of Rome and had obliged himself by most sacred Vows and was endeavouring by all the Frauds and Arts imaginable to subvert the established Doctrin and Worship and set up Heresy and Idolatry in their room And it must needs give them an abhorrent Idea and Character of Popery and a loathsom representation of those trusted with the Conduct and Guidance of the Consciences of Men in the Roman Communion that they should not onely dispense with and indulge such Crimes and Villanies but proclaim them Sanctified and Meritorious from the end which they are calculated for and levelled at And for his dear Brother and renowned Successor who possessed the Throne after him I suppose his most partial Admirers who took him for a Prince not onely merciful in his Temper and imbued with all gracious Inclinations to our Laws and the Rights of the Subject but for one Orthodox in his Religion and who would prove a zealous Defender of the Doctrine Worship and Discipline of the Church established by Law are before this time both undeceived and filled with Resentments for his having abused their Credulity deceived their Expectations and reproached all their Gloryings and Boastings of him For as it would have been the greatest Affront they could have put upon the King to question his being of the Roman Communion or to detract from his Zeal for the introduction of Popery notwithstanding his own antecedent Protestations as well as the many Statutes in force for the preservation of the Reformed Religion so I must take the liberty to tell them that his Apostacy is not of so late Date as the World is made commonly to believe For though it was many Years concealed and the contrary pretended and dissembled yet it is most certain that he Abjured the Protestant Religion soon after the Exilement of the Royal Family and was reconciled to the Romish Church at St. Germains in France Nor were several of the then suffering Bishops and Clergy ignorant of this though they had neither the Integrity nor Courage to give the Nation and Church warning of it And within these five Years there was in the custody of a very worthy and honest Gentleman a Letter written to the late Bishop of D. by a Doctor of Divinity then attending upon the Royal Brothers wherein the Apostacy of the then Duke of York to the See of Rome is particularly related and an Account given how much the Dutchess of Tremoville though without being her self observed had heard the Queen Mother glorying of it bewailed it as a dishonour unto the Royal Family and as that which might prove of pernicious consequence to the Protestant Interest But though the old Queen privately rejoyced and triumphed in it yet she knew too well what disadvantage it might be both to her Son and to the Papal Cause in Great Brittain to have it at that Season communicated and divulged Thereupon it remained a Secret for many Years and by virtue of a Dispensation he sometimes joined in all Ordinances with those of the Protestant Communion But for all the Art Hypocrisy and Sacrilege by which it was endeavoured to be concealed it might have been easily discerned as manifesting it self in the whole Course of his Actions And at last his own Zeal the Importunity of the Priests and the Cunning of the late King prevailing over Reasons of State he withdrew from all Acts of Fellowship with the Church of England But neither that nor his refusing the Test enjoyned by Law for distinguishing Papists from Protestants though thereupon he was forced both to resign his Office of Lord High Admiral c. nor his declining the Oath which the Laws of Scotland for the securing a Protestant Governour enjoyn to be taken by the High Commissioner nor yet so many Parliaments having endeavoured to get him Excluded from Succession to the Crown upon the account of having revolted to the See of Rome and thereby become dangerous to the Established Religion could make impression upon a wilfully deluded and obstinate sort of Protestants but in defiance of all means of Conviction they would perswade themselves that he was still a Zealot for our Religion and a grand Patriot of the Church of England Nor could any thing undeceive them till upon his Brother's Death he had openly declared himself a Roman Catholick and afterwards in the fumes and raptures of his Victory over the late Duke of Monmouth had discovered and proclaimed his Intentions of overthrowing both our Religion and Laws Yea so closely had some sealed up their Eyes against all beams of Light and hardned themselves against all Evidences from Reason and Fact that had it pleased the Almighty God to have prospered the Duke of Monmouth's Arms in the Summer 85. the present King would have gone off the Stage with the Reputation among them of a Prince tender of the Laws of the Kingdom and who notwithstanding his own being a Papist would have preserved the Reformed Religion and have maintained the Church of England in all her Grandure and Rights And though his whole Life had been but one continued Conspiracy against our Civil Liberties and Priviledges he had left the Throne with the Character and under the Esteem of a Gentleman that in the whole course of his Government would have regulated himself by the Rules of the Constitution and the Statutes of the Realm Now among all the Methods fallen upon by the Royal Brothers for the undermining and subverting our Religion and Laws there is none that they have pursued with more Ardor and wherein they have been more successful to the compassing of their Designs than in their dividing Protestants and alienating their Affections and embittering their Minds from and against one another And had not this lain under their prospect and the means of effecting it appeared easie they might have been Papists themselves while in the mean time they had been dispensed with to protest and swear their being of the Reformed Religion and they might have envied our Liberties and bewailed their Restriction from Arbitrary and Despotical Power but they never durst have entertained a Thought of subverting the Established Religion or of altering the Civil Government nor would they ever have had the boldness to have attempted the introducing and erecting Popery and Tyranny in their room And whosoever should have put them upon reducing the Nation
Fear or Courtship have enrolled themselves into the List of Addressers and under pretence of giving thanks to the King for his promise of protecting the Archbishops Bishops and Clergy and all other of the Church of England in the free exercise of their Religion as by Law established have cut the throat of their Mother at whose breasts they have suck'd till they are grown fat both by acknowledging the usurped Prerogative upon which the King assumes the Right and Authority of emitting the Declaration and by exchanging the legal standing and security of their Church into that precarious one of the Royal Word which they fly unto as the bottom of her Subsistence and trust to as the wall of her defence And as most of the Members of the Separate Societies are free from all accession to Addressing and the few that concurred were merely drawn in by the wheedle and importunity of their Preachers so they who are of the chiefest Character and greatest reputation for Wisdom and Learning among the Ministers have preserved themselves from all folly and treachery of that kind The Apostle tells us that not many wise not many noble are called which as it is verified in many of the Dissenting Addressers so it may serve for some kind of Apology for their low and sneaking as well as for their indiscreet and imprudent behaviour in this matter And it is the more venial in some of them as being not only a means of ingratiating themselves as they fansie with the King who heretofore had no very good opinion of them but as being both an easie and compendious method of Attoning for Offences against the Crown of which they were strongly suspected and a cheap and expenceless way of purchasing the pardon of their Relations that had stood actually accused of High Treason Nor is it to be doubted but that as the King will retain very little favour and mercy for Fanaticks when once he has served his Ends upon them so they will preserve as little kindness for the Papists if they can but obtain relief in a legal way And as there is not a People in the Kingdom that will be more loyal to Princes while they continue so to govern as that Fealty by the Laws of God or Man remains due to them so there are none of what Principles or Communion soever upon whom the Kingdom in its whole interest come to lye at stake may more assuredly and with greater confidence depend than upon the generality of Dissenting Protestants and especially upon those that are not of the Pastoral Order The severities that the Dissenters lay under before and their deliverance from Oppression and Disturbance now seconded with the Kings expectation and demands of thanksgiving Addresses were strong Temptations upon men void of generosity and greatness of spirit and who are withal of no great political Wisdom nor of prospect into the Consequences of Councils and Tricks of State to act as illegally in their thanks as his Majesty had done in his bounty So that whatsoever Animadversion they may deserve should they be proceeded against according to their demerit yet it is to be hoped that both they and the Addressers of the former stamp may all find room in an Act of Indemnity and that the Mercy of the Nation towards them will triumph over and get the better of its Justice As it would argue a strange and judicial infatuation should they proceed to farther excesses and think to escape the Punishment due to one Crime by committing and taking sanctuary in another thro improving their Complements into actions of Treachery so all their hope of Pardon as well as of Lenity and Moderation from a true Protestant and rightly constituted Authority depends upon their conduct and behaviour henceforward and their not suffering themselves to be hurried and deluded into a cooperation with the Court for the obtaining of a Popish Parliament All their endeavours of that kind would but more clearly detect and manifest their treachery to Religion and the Kingdom it not being in their power to out-vote the honest English part of the People so as to help the King to such a House of Commons as he desires and were it possible that thro their assistance in conjunction with violence and tricks used in Elections and Returns by the Court such a House of Commons might be obtained as would be serviceable to Arbitrary and Papal Ends yet neither the King nor they would be the nearer the compassing what is aim'd at it being demonstrable that the majority of the House of Lords are never to be wrought over to justifie this illegal Declaration or to grant the King a Power of Suspending Laws at his pleasure nor to give their Assent to a Bill for Repealing the Test Acts and the Statutes that enjoyn and require the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy And if they should be so far left of God and betray'd by those among themselves whom the Court hath gained as to become guilty of so enormous an act of folly and villany and should the Election of the next Parliament be the happy juncture they wait for and the improving their interest as well as the giving their own Votes for the Choice of Papists into the House of Commons be what they mean by an essential proof of their Loyalty and of the sincerity of their humble Addresses See Mr. Alsop's Speech to the King and that whereby they intend to demonstrate that the greatest thing they have promised is the least thing they will perform for his Majesties service and satisfaction as in that case they will deserve to forfeit all hopes of being forgiven so it would be an infidelity to God and Men and a cruelty to our selves and our Posterity not to abandon them as betrayers of Religion expunge them out of the Roll of Protestants strip them of all that wherein free Subjects have a Legal Right and not to condemn them to the utmost punishments which the Laws of the Kingdom adjudge the worst of Traitors and Malefactors unto There are some who thro hating of them do wish their miscarrying and offending to so unpardonable a degree that they may hereafter be furnished with an advantage both of ruining them and the whole Dissenting Party for their sakes But as the love that I bear unto them and the perswasion and belief I have of the truth of their Religious Principles do make me exceeding sollicitous to have them kept and prevented from being hurried and transported into so fatal and criminal a behaviour so I desire to make no other excuse for my plain dealing towards them but that of Solomon who tells us that faithful are the wounds of a friend while the kisses of an Enemy are deceitful and that he who rebukes a man shall find more favour afterwards than he who flattereth with the tongue POSTSCRIPT SInce the foregoing Sheets went to the Press and while they were Printing off there is come to my hands a new
in open Arms or with Arms in their Houses or about their Persons or in any Office or Imployment Civil or Military upon any Pretence whatsoever contrary to the known Laws of the Land shall be treated by Us and our Forces not as Soldiers and Gentlemen but as Robbers Free-Booters and Banditti they shall be incapable of Quarter and intirely delivered up to the Discretion of our Soldiers And We do further declare that all Persons who shall be found any ways aiding and assisting to them or shall march under their Command or shall joyn with or submit to them in the Discharge or Execution of their Illegal Commissions or Authority shall be looked upon as Partakers of their Crimes Enemies to the Laws and to their Country And whereas we are certainly informed that great Numbers of armed Papists have of late resorted to London and Westminster and parts adjacent where they remain as we have reason to suspect not so much for their own Security as out of a wicked and barbarous Design to make some desperate Attempt upon the said Cities and their Inhabitants by Fire or a sudden Massacre or both or else to be the more ready to joyn themselves to a Body of French Troops designed if it be possible to land in England procured of the French King by the Interest and Power of the Jesuits in Pursuance of the Engagements which at the Instigation of that pestilent Society his most Christian Majesty with one of his Neighbouring Princes of the same Communion has entred into for the utter Extirpation of the Protestant Religion out of Europe Tho we hope we have taken such effectual care to prevent the one and secure the other that by God's Assistance we cannot doubt but we shall defeat all their wicked Enterprises and Designs We cannot however forbear out of the great and tender Concern We have to preserve the People of England and particularly those great and populous Cities from the cruel Rage and bloody Revenge of the Papists to Require and expect from all the Lord-Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace Lord-Mayors Mayors Sheriffs and all other Magistrates and Officers Civil and Military of all Counties Cities and Towns of England especially of the County of Middlesex and Cities of London and Westminster and parts adjacent that they do immediately disarm and secure as by Law they may and ought within their respective Counties Cities and Jurisdictions all Papists whatsoever as Persons at all times but now especially most dangerous to the Peace and Safety of the Government that so not only all Power of doing mischief may be taken from them but that the Laws which are the greatest and best Security may resume their Force and be strictly Executed And We do hereby likewise Declare that We will Protect and Defend all those who shall not be afraid to do their Duty in Obedience to these Laws And that for those Magistrates and others of what condition soever they be who shall refuse to assist Us and in Obedience to the Laws to Execute vigorously what we have required of them and suffer themselves at this Juncture to be cajoled or terrified out of ther Duty We will esteem them the most Criminal and Infamous of all Men Betrayers of their Religion the Laws and their Native Country and shall not fail to treat them accordingly resolving to expect and require at their hands the Life of every single Protestant that shall perish and every House that shall be burnt or destroyed by their Treachery and Cowardise William Henry Prince of Orange Given under our Hand and Seal at our Head-quarters at Sherburn Castle the 28th day of November 1688. By his Highness special Command C. HUYGENS. The following Paper was Published by Mr. Samuel Johnson in the Year 1686. for which he was Sentenc'd by the Court of King's Bench Sir Edward Herbert being Lord Chief Justice to stand three times on the Pillory and to be whipp'd from Newgate to Tyburn Which barbarous Sentence was Executed An Humble and Hearty Address to all the English Protestants in this present Army Gentlemen NExt to the Duty which we owe to God which ought to be the principal Care of Men of your Profession especially because you carry your Lives in your Hands and often look Death in the Face The second Thing that deserves your Consideration is The service of your Native Country wherein you drew your first Breath and breathed a free English Air. Now I would desire you to consider how well you comply with these two main Points by engaging in this present Service Is it in the Name of God and for his Service that you have joyned your selves with Papists who will indeed fight for the Mass-book but burn the Bible and who seek to Extirpate the Protestant Religion with Your Swords because they cannot do it with their Own And will you be Aiding and Assisting to set up Mass-houses to Erect that Popish Kingdom of Darkness and Desolation amongst us and to train up all our Children in Popery How can you do these Things and yet call your selves Protestants And then what Service can be done your Country by being under the Command of French and Irish Papists and by bringing the Nation under a Foreign Yoke Will you help them to make forcible Entry into the Houses of your Country-men under the Name of Quartering directly contrary to Magna Charta and the Petition of Right Will you be Aiding and Assisting to all the Murders and Outrages which they shall commit by their void Commissions Which were declared Illegal and sufficiently blasted by both Houses of Parliament if there had been any need of it for it was very well known before That a Papist cannot have a Commission but by the Law is utterly Disabled and Disarmed Will you exchange your Birth-right of English Laws and Liberties for Martial or Club-law and help to destroy all others only to be eaten last your selves If I know you well as you are English Men you hate and scorn these Things And therefore be not unequally yoaked with Idolatrous and Bloody Papists Be Valiant for the Truth and shew your selves Men. The same Considerations are likewise humbly offered to all the English Seamen who have been the Bulwark of this Nation against Popery and Slavery ever since Eighty Eight Several Reasons for the Establishment of a standing Army and Dissolving the Militia By Mr. S. Johnson 1. BEcause the Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and the whole Militia that is to say the Lords Gentlemen and Free-holders of England are not fit to be trusted with their own Laws Lives Liberties and Estates and therefore ought to have Guardians and Keepers assigned to them 2. Because Mercenary Soldiers who fight for twelve Pence a Day will fight better as having more to lose than either the Nobility or Gentry 3. Because there are no Irish Papists in the Militia who are certainly the best Soldiers in the World for they have slain Men Women and Children
by Hundreds of Thousands at once 4. Because the Dragooners have made more Converts than all the Bishops and Clergy of France 5. The Parliament ought to establish one standing Army at the least because indeed there will be need of Two that one of them may defend the People from the other 6. Because it is a thousand pities that a brave Popish Army should be a Riot 7. Unless it be Established by Act of Parliament The Justices of Peace will be forced to suppress it in their own Defence for they will be loth to forfeit an hundred Pounds every day they rise out of Complement to a Popish Rout. 13 H. 4. c. 7. 2 H. 5. c. 8. 8. Because a Popish Army is a Nullity For all Papists are utterly disabled and punishable besides from bearing any Office in Camp Troop Band or Company of Soldiers and are so far disarmed by Law that they cannot wear a Sword so much as in their Defence without the allowance of four Justices of the Peace of the County And then upon a March they will be perfectly Inchanted for they are not able to stir above five Miles from their own Dwelling-house 3. Jac. 5. Sect. 8.27 28 29.35 Eliz. 2.3 Jac. 5. Sect. 7. 9. Because Persons utterly disabled by Law are utterly Unauthorized and therefore the void Commissions of Killing and Slaying in the Hands of Papists can only enable them to Massacre and Murder To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and divers of the Suffragan Bishops of that Province now present with him in behalf of themselves and others of their absent Brethren and of the Clergy of their respective Diocesses Humbly sheweth THAT the great averseness they find in themselves to the distributing and publishing in all their Churches your Majesty's late Declaration for Liberty of Conscience proceeds neither from any want of Duty and Obedience to your Majesty our Holy Mother the Church of England being both in her Principles and in her constant Practice unquestionably Loyal and having to her great Honour been more than once publickly acknowledg'd to be so by your Gracious Majesty Nor yet from any want of due tenderness to Dissenters in relation to whom they are willing to come to such a Temper as shall be thought fit when that Matter shall be considered and settled in Parliament and Convocation But among many other Considerations from this especially because that Declaration is founded upon such a Dispensing Power as has been often declared Illegal in Parliament and particularly in the years 1662 and 1672. and in the beginning of your Majesty's Reign and is a matter of so great Moment and Consequence to the whole Nation both in Church and State that your Petitioners cannot in Prudence Honour or Conscience so far make themselves Parties to it as the distribution of it all over the Nation and the solemn Publication of it once and again even in God's House and in the Time of his Divine Service must amount to in common and reasonable Construction Your Petitioners therefore most Humbly and Earnestly beseech your Majesty that you will be ciously pleased not to insist upon their Distributing and Reading your Majesty's said Declaration And Your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever Pray Will. Cant. Will. Asaph Fr Ely Jo. Cicestr Tho. Bathon Wellen. Tho. Peterburgen Jonath Bristol His Majesties Answer was to this effect I Have heard of this before but did not believe it I did not expect this from the Church of England especially from some of you If I change my Mind you shall hear from me if not I expect my Command shall be obeyed The PETITION of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the Calling of a Free Parliament Together with his Majesty's Gracious Answer to their Lordships To the KING 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whose Names are subscribed May it please your Majesty WE your Majesty's most loyal Subjects in a deep sense of the Miseries of a War now breaking forth in the Bowels of this your Kingdom and of the Danger to which your Majesty's Sacred Person is thereby like to be exposed and also of the Distractions of your People by reason of their present Grievances do think our selves bound in Conscience of the duty we owe to God and our holy Religion to your Majesty and our Country most humbly offer to your Majesty That in our Opinion the only visible Way to preserve your Majesty and this your Kingdom would be the Calling of a Parliament Regular and Free in all its Circumstances We therefore do most earnestly beseech your Majesty That you would be graciously pleased with all speed to call such a Parliament wherein we shall be most ready to promote such Counsels and Resolutions of Peace and Settlement in Church and State as may conduce to your Majesty's Honour and Safety and to the quieting the Minds of your People We do likewise humbly beseech your Majesty in the mean time to use such means for the preventing the Effusion of Christian Blood as to your Majesty shall seem most meet And your Petitioners shall ever pray c. W. Cant. Grafton Ormond Dorset Clare Clarendon Burlington Anglesey Rochester Newport Nom. Ebor. W. Asaph Fran. Ely Tho. Roffen Tho. Petriburg Tho. Oxon. Paget Chandois Osulston Presented by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Arch-Bishop of York Elect the Bishop of Ely and the Bishop of Rochester the 17th of November 1688. His Majesty's most Gracious Answer My LORDS What You ask of Me I most passionately desire And I promise You upon the Faith of a King That I will have a Parliament and such an One as You ask for as soon as ever the Prince of Orange has quitted this Realm For How is it possible a Parliament should be Free in all its Circumstances as You Petition for whil'st an Enemy is in the Kingdom and can make a Return of near an Hundred Voices The Lords Petition with the King's Answer may be printed Novemb. 29. 1688. The P. O.'s Letter to the English Army Gentlemen and Friends WE have given you so full and so true an Account of Our Intentions in this Expedition in Our Declaration that as We can add nothing to it so We are sure you can desire nothing more of us We are come to preserve your Religion and to restore and establish your Liberties and Properties and therefore We cannot suffer Our selves to doubt but that all true English men will come and concur with Us in Our desire to secure these Nations from POPERY and SLAVERY You must all plainly see that you are only made use of as Instruments to enslave the Nation and ruin the Protestant Religion and when that is done you may judge what ye your selves ought to expect both from the cashiering of all the Protestant and English Officers and Soldiers in Ireland and by the Irish Soldiers being brought over to be put in your places
humbly Pray That His Majesty would Consent to this Expedient in order to a future Settlement And hope that such a Temperament may be thought of as that the Army now on Foot may not give any Interruption to the proceeding of a Parliament But if to the great Misfortune and Ruin of these Kingdoms it should prove otherwise we further declare That we will to our utmost defend the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Kingdom and the Rights and Liberties of the Subject A Letter from a Gentleman at King's-Lynn December 7. 1688. To his Friend in London Sir THE Duke of Norfolk came to Town on Wednesday Night with many of the chiefest of the County and yesterday in the Market-place received the Address following which was presented by the Mayor attended by the Body and many hundreds of the Inhabitants To his Grace the most Noble Henry Duke of Norfolk Lord Marshal of England My Lord THE daily Allarms we receive as well from Foreign as Domestick Enemies give us just Apprehensions of the approaching Danger which we conceive we are in and to apply with all earnestness to your Grace as your great Patron in all humble Confidence to succeed in our Expectations That we may be put into such a posture by your Grace's Directions and Conduct as may make us appear as zealous as any in the Defence of the Protestant Religion the Laws and Ancient Government of this Kingdom Being the desire of many hundreds who must humbly callenge a Right of your Grace's Protection His Grace's Answer Mr. Mayor I Am very much obliged to you and the rest of your Body and those here present for your good Opinion of me and the Confidence you have that I will do what in me lies to support and defend the Laws Liberties and Protestant Religion in which I will never deceive you And since the coming of the Prince of Orange hath given us an opportunity to declare for the defence of them I can only assure you that no Man will venture his Life and Fortune more freely for the Defence of the Laws Liberties and Protestant Religion than I will do and with all these Gentlemen here present and many more will unanimously concur therein and you shall see that all possible Care shall be taken that such a Defence shall be made as you require AFter which the Duke was with his Retinue received at the Mayor's House at Dinner with great Acclamations and his Proceedings therein have put our County into a Condition of Defence of which you shall hear further in a little time our Militia being ordered to be raised throughout the County Our Tradesmen Seamen and Mobile have this morning generally put Orange Ribbon on their Hats Ecchoing Huzza's to the Prince of Orange and Duke of Norfolk All are in a hot Ferment God send us a good Issue of it Lynn-Regis Decemb. 10. 1688. Sir BY mine of the 7th Instant I gave you an Account of the Address of this Corporation to his Grace the Duke of Norfolk and of his Grace's Answer thereto Since which his Grace has sent for the Militia Troops and put them in a posture of Defence as appears by the ensuing Speech The Duke of Norfolk's second Speech at Lynn I Hope you see I have endeavoured to put you in the posture you desired by sending both for Horse and Foot of the Militia and am very glad to see such an Appearance of this Town in so good a Condition And I do again renew my former Assurances to you that I will ever stand by you to Defend the Laws Liberties and the Protestant Religion and to procure a Settlement in Church and State in concurrence with the Lords and Gentlemen in the North and pursuant to the Declaration of the Prince of Orange And so God save the King The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guild-hall Dec. 1688. WE doubt not but the World believes that in this great and dangerous Conjuncture we are heartily and zealously concerned for the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land and the Liberties and Properties of the Subject And we did reasonably Hope that the King having Issued His Proclamation and Writs for a Free Parliament we might have rested Secure under the Expectation of that Meeting But His Majesty having withdrawn Himself and as we apprehend in order to His Departure out of this Kingdom by the pernicious Counsels of Persons ill-affected to our Nation and Religion we cannot without being wanting to our Duty be silent under those Calamities wherein the Popish Counsels which so long prevailed have miserably Involved these Realms We do therefore Unanimously resolve to apply our Selves to His Highness the Prince of Orange who with so great Kindness to these Kingdoms so vast Expence and so much Hazard to his own Person hath Undertaken by endeavouring to procure a Free Parliament to rescue Us with as little Effusion as possible of Christian Blood from the Imminent Dangers of Popery and Slavery And we do hereby Declare That we will with our utmost Endeavours assist his Highness in the obtaining such a Parliament with all speed wherein our Laws our Liberties and Properties may be Secured the Church of England in particular with a due Liberty to Protestant Dissenters and in general the Protestant Religion and Interest over the whole World may be Supported and Encouraged to the glory of God the Happiness of the Established Government in these Kingdoms and the Advantage of all Princes and States in Christendom that may be herein concerned In the mean time we will endeavour to preserve as much as in us lies the Peace and Security of these great and populous Cities of London and Westminster and the Parts adjacent by taking care to Disarm all Papists and secure all Jesuits and Romish Priests who are in our about the same And if there be any thing more to be performed by us for promoting his Highness's generous Intentions for the Publick good we shall be ready to do it as occasion shall require W. Cant. Tho. Ebor. Pembroke Dorset Mulgrave Thanet Carlisle Craven Ailesbury Burlington Sussex Barkelay Rochester Newport Waymouth P. Winchester W. Asaph Fran. Ely Tho. Roffen Tho. Petriberg P. Wharton North and Grey Chandos Montague T. Jermyn Vaughan Carbery Culpeper Crewe Osulston WHereas His Majesty hath privately this Morning withdrawn Himself we the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whose Names are subscribed being assembled at Guild-hall in London having Agreed upon and Signed a Declaration Entituled The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guild-hall 11. Decemb. 1688. Do desire the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembroke the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Weymouth the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Ely and the Right Honourable the Lord Culpeper forthwith to attend his Highness the Prince of Orange with the said Declaration and at the same
in your Kingdoms as here in the Roman Empire But now we refer it even to your Majesty to judg what condition we can be in to afford you any Assistance we being not only Engaged in a War with the Turks but finding our selves at the same time unjustly and barbarously Attacked by the French contrary to and against the Faith of Treaties they then reckoning themselves secure of England And this ought not to be concealed that the greatest Injuries which have been done to our Religion have flowed from no other than the French themselves who not only esteem it lawful for them to make perfidious Leagues with the sworn Enemies of the Holy Cross tending to the destruction both of us and of the whole Christian World in order to the checking our Endeavours which were undertaken for the glory of God and to stop those Successes which it hath pleased Almighty God to give us hitherto but further have heaped one Treuchery upon another even within the Empire it self The Cities of the Empire which were Surrendred upon Articles signed by the Dauphin himself have been exhausted by excessive Impositions and after their being exhausted have been Plundred and after Plundring have been Burned and Razed The Palaces of Princes which in all times and even in the most destructive Wars have been preserved are now burnt down to the ground The Churches are Robbed and such as submitted themselves to them are in a most Barbarous manner carried away as Slaves In short It is become a Diversion to them to commit all manner of Insolences and Cruelties in many places but chiefly in Catholick Countries exceeding the Cruelties of the Turks themselves which having imposed an absolute necessity upon us to secure our selves and the holy Roman Empire by the best means we can think on and that no less against them than against the Turks we promise our selves from your Justice ready assent to this That it ought not to be imputed to us if we endeavour to procure by a just War that security to our selves which we could not hitherto obtain by so many Treaties and that in order to the obtaining thereof we take measures for our mutual Defence of Preservation with all those who are equally concerned in the same Design with us It remains that we beg of God that he would Direct all things to his glory and that he would grant your Majesty true and solid Comforts under this your great Calamity we embrace you with tender Affections of a Brother At Vienna the 9th of April 1689. The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster concerning the Misgovernment of King James and filling up the Throne Presented to King William and Queen Mary by the right Honourable the Marquess of Hallifax Speaker to the House of Lords With His Majesties most gracious Answer thereunto WHereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of divers Evil Counsellors Judges and Ministers Imploy'd by Him did endeavour to Subvert and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom By Assuming and Exercising a Power of Dispensing with and Suspending of Laws and the Execution of Laws without consent of Parliament By Committing and Prosecuting divers Worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be Excused from concurring to the said assumed Power By 〈◊〉 and causing to be executed a Commission under the great Seal for erecting a Court called The Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes By Levying Mony for and to the Use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative for other time and in other manner than the same was granted by Parliament By raising and keeping a standing Army within this Kingdom in the time of Peace whithout consent of Parliament and Quartering Soldiers contrary to Law By causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be Disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Armed and Imployed contrary to Law By violating the Freedom of Election of Members to serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of King's-Bench for Matters and Causes cognizable only in Parliament and by divers other Arbitrary and Illegal Courses And whereas of late Years Partial Corrupt and Unqualified Persons have been returned and served on Juries in Tryals and particularly divers Jurors in Tryals for High-Treason which were not Free-holders And Excessive Bail hath been required of Persons committed in Criminal Cases to elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subjects And Excessive Fines have been Imposed And Illegal and Cruel Punishments inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Convictions or Judgment against the Persons upon whom the same were to be Levied All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws and Statutes and Freedom of this Realm And whereas the said late K. James the Second having abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby vacant His Highness the Prince of Orange whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the glorious Instrument of Delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and divers principal Persons of the Commons cause Letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and other Letters to the several Counties Cities Universities Burroughs and Cinque-Ports for the Chusing of such Persons to represent them as were of Right to be sent to Parliament to Meet and Sit at Westminster upon the 22d Day of January in this Year 1688 in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being Subverted Upon which Letters Elections having been accordingly made And thereupon the said Lord's Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their respective Letters and Elections being now Assembled in a Full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most serious Consideration the best Means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like Case have usually done for the Vindicating and Asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties Declare That the pretended Power of Suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without Consent of Parliament is Illegal That the pretended Power of Dispensing with Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised of late is Illegal That the Commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like Nature are Illegal and Pernicious That levying of Mony for or to the Use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative without grant of Parliament for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted is Illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are Illegal That the Raising or Keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be with
3. By taking the Children of Protestant Noblemen and Gentlemen sending them abroad to be bred Papists making great Funds and Donations to Popish Schools and Colleges abroad bestowing Pensions on Priests and perverting Protestants from their Religion by Offers of Places Preferments and Pensions 4. By disarming Protestants while at the same time he employed Papists in the Places of greatest Trust Civil and Military such as Chancellor Secretaries Privy Councellors and Lords of Session thrusting out Protestants to make room for Papists and intrusting the Forts and Magazines of the Kingdom in their hands 5. By Imposing Oaths contrary to Law 6. By giving Gifts and Grants for exacting of Mony without Consent of Parliament or Convention of Estates 7. By Levying and keeping on foot a standing Army in time of Peace without consent of Parliament which Army did exact Locality free and day Quarters 8. By Employing the Officers of the Army as Judges through the Kingdom and imposing them where there were held Offices and Jurisdictions by whom many of the Leiges were put to Death summarily without legal Tryal Jury or Record 9. By imposing exorbitant Fines to the Value of the Parties Estates exacting extravagant Bail and disposing Fines and Forfaulture before any Process or Conviction 10. By Imprisoning Persons without expressing the Reason and delaying to put them to Tryal 11. By causing pursue and forfault several Persons upon stretches of old and obsolete Laws upon frivolous and weak pretences upon lame and defective Probations as particularly the late Earl of Argyle to the scandal and reproach of the Justice of the Nation 12. By Subverting the Right of the Royal Boroughs the Third Estate of Parliament imposing upon them not only Magistrates but also the whole Town Council and Clerks contrary to the Liberties and express Charters without the pretence either of Sentence Surrender or Consent So that the Commissioners to Parliaments being chosen by the Magistrates and Councils the King might in effect as well nominate that entire Estate of Parliament many of the said Magistrates put in by him were avowed Papists and the Burghs were forced to pay Mony for the Letters imposing these Illegal Magistrates and Council upon them 13. By sending Letters to the chief Courts of Justice not only ordering the Judges to stop and desist sine die to determine Causes but also ordering and commanding them how to proceed in Cases depending before them contrary to the express Laws And by changing the Nature of the Judges Gifts ad vitam aut culpam and giving them Commissions ad bene placitum to dispose them to compliance by Arbitrary Courses turning them out of their Offices when they did not comply 14. By granting Personal Protections for Civil Debts contrary to Law All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws Freedoms and Statutes of this Realm Therefore the Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland find and declare That King James the Seventh being a profest papist did assume the Regal Power and acted as a King without ever taking the Oath required by Law and have by advice of Evil and Wicked Counsellors invaded the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom and altered it from a Legal limited Monarchy to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power and hath exercised the same to the subversion of the Protestant Religion and the violation of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom Inverting all the Ends of Government whereby he hath forfaulted the Right to the Crown and the Throne is become vacant And whereas his Royal Highness William then Prince of Orange now King of England whom it hath pleased the Almighty God to make the glorious Instrument of delivering these Kingdoms from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by advice of several Lords and Gentlemen of this Nation at London for the time call the Estates of this Kingdom to meet the Fourteenth of March last in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not be again in danger of being subverted And the said Estates being now assembled in a full and free Representative of this Nation taking to their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the Ends aforesaid Do in the first place as their Ancestors in the like cases have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties declare That by the Law of this Kingdom no Papist can be King or Queen of the Realm nor bear any Office whatsoever therein nor can any Protestant Successor exercise the Regal Power until he or she swear the Coronation Oath That all Proclamations asserting an Absolute Power to cass annul and disable Laws the erecting Schools and Colleges for Jesuits the inverting Protestant Chapels and Churches to publick Mass-houses and the allowing Mass to be said are contrary to Law That the allowing Popish Books to be printed and dispersed is contrary to Law That the taking the Children of Noblemen Gentlemen and others sending and keeping them abroad to be bred Papists The making Funds and Donations to Popish Schools and Colleges the bestowing Pensions on Priests and the perverting Protestants from their Religion by offers of Places Preferments and Pensions are contrary to Law That the disarming of Protestants and imploying Papists in the Places of greatest Trust both Civil and Military the thrusting out Protestants to make room for Papists and the entrusting Papists with the Forts and Magazines of the Kingdom are contrary to Law That the Imposing Oaths without Authority of Parliament is contrary to Law That the giving Gifts or Grants for raising of Mony without the Consent of Parliament or Convention of Estates is contrary to Law That the employing Officers of the Army as Judges through the Kingdom or imposing them where there were several Offices and Jurisdictions and the putting the Lieges to death summarily and without legal Tryal Jury or Record are contrary to Law That the imposing extraordinary Fines the exacting of exorbitant Bail and the disposing of Fines and Forfaultures before Sentence are contrary to Law That the Imprisoning Persons without expressing the reason thereof and delaying to put them to Tryal are contrary to Law That the causing pursue and forfault Persons upon Stretches of old and obsolete Laws upon frivolous and weak Pretences upon lame and defective Probation as particularly the late Earl of Argyle are contrary to Law That the nominating and imposing Magistrates Councils and Clerks upon Burghs contrary to the Liberties and express Charters is contrary to Law That the sending Letters to the Courts of Justice ordaining the Judges to stop or desist from determining Causes or ordaining them how to proceed in Causes depending before them and the changing the Nature of the Judges Gifts ad vitam aut culpam unto Commissions Durante bene placito are contrary to Law That the granting Personal Protections for Civil Debts is contrary to Law That the forcing the Lieges to depone against themselves in Capital Crimes however the Punishment be restricted is contrary to Law
That the using Torture without Evidence or in ordinary Crimes is contrary to Law That the sending of an Army in a Hostile manner upon any part of the Kingdom in a peaceable time and exacting of Locality and any manner of free Quarter is contrary to Law That the charging the Lieges with Law-burroughs at the King's instance and the imposing of Bands without the Authority of Parliament and the suspending the Advocates from their Imployments for not compearing when such Bands were offered were contrary to Law That the putting of Garisons on private Mens Houses in a time of peace without the consent of the Authority of Parliament is contrary to Law That the opinion of the Lords of Session in the two Causes following were contrary to Law viz. 1. That the concerting the demand of a Supply for a Forfaulted Person although not given is Treason 2. That Persons refusing to discover what are their private thoughts and judgments in relation to points of Treason or other Mens actions are guilty of Treason That the fining Husbands for their Wives withdrawing from the Church was contrary to Law That Prelacy and Superiority of any Office in the Church above Presbyters is and hath been a great and unsupportable Grievance and Trouble to this Nation and contrary to the Inclinations of the Generality of the People ever since the Reformation they having Reformed from Popery by Presbyters and therefore ought to be abolished That it is the Right and Privilege of the Subjects to protest for remand of Law to the King and Parliament against Sentences pronounced by the Lords of Session providing the same do not stop execution of the said Sentences That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and that all Imprisonments and Prosecutions for such Petitions are contrary to Law That for redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthning and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be frequently called and allowed to sit and the freedom of Speech and Debate secured to the Members And they do claim and demand and insist upon all and sundry the Premisses as their undoubted Right and Liberties and that no Declarations Doings or Proceedings to the prejudice of the People in any of the said Premisses ought in any ways to be drawn hereafter in consequence and example but that all Forfaultures Fines loss of Offices Imprisonments Banishments Pursuits Persecutions and Rigorous Executions be considered and the Parties seized be redressed To which demand of the Rights and Redressing of their Grievances they are particularly incouraged by his Majesty the King of England his Declaration for the Kingdom of Scotland of the _____ day of October last as being the only means for obtaining a full Redress and remead therein Having therefore an entire Confidence That his said Majesty the King of England will perfyte the Deliverance so far advanced by him and will still preserve them from the Violation of the Rights which they have here asserted and from all other Attempts upon their Religion Laws and Liberties The said Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland do resolve That William and Mary King and Queen of England France and Ireland â—e and Be Declared King and Queen of Scotland to Hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom of Scotland to them the said King and Queen during their Lives and the longest Liver of them and that the sole and full exercise of the Royal Power be only in and exercised by him the said King in the Names of the said King and Queen during their joynt lives And after their deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Queen Which failing to the Princess Ann of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body Which also failing to the Heirs of the Body of the said William King of England And they do pray the said King and Queen of England to accept the same accordingly And that the Oath hereafter mentioned be taken by all Protestants of whom the Oath of Allegiance and any other Oaths and Declarations might be required by Law instead thereof And that the said Oath of Allegiance and other Oaths and Declarations may be Abrogated I A. B. Do sincerely Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear True Allegiance to Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary So help me God A Proclamation declaring William and Mary King and Queen of England to be King and Queen of Scotland Edinburgh April 11. 1689. WHereas the Estates of this Kingdom of Scotland by their Act of the Date of these Presents have Resolved That WILLIAM and MARY King and Queen of England France and Ireland Be and Be declared King and Queen of Scotland to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom of Scotland to them the said King and Queen during their Lives and the longest Liver of Them and that the Sole and Full Exercise of the Regal Power be only in and Exercised by the said King in the Names of the said King and Queen during their joynt Libes As also the Estates having Resolved and Enacted an Instrument of Government or Claim of Right to be presented with the Offer of the Crown to the said King and Queen They do Statute and Ordain that William and Mary King and Queen of England France and Ireland be accordingly forthwith Proclaimed King and Queen of Scotland at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh by the Lyon King at Arms or his Deputs his Brethren Heraulds Macers and Pursevants and at the Head-Burghs of all the Shires Stewarties Bailliaries and Regalities within the Kingdom by Messengers at Arms. Extracted forth of the Meeting of the Estates by me Ja. Dalrymple Cls. God save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY The Manner of the King and Queen taking the Scotish Coronation Oath May 11. 1689. THis day being appointed for the publick Reception of the Commissioners viz. The Earl of Argyle Sir James Montgomery of Skelmerly and Sir John Dalrymple of Stair younger who were sent by the Meeting of the Estates of Scotland with an Offer of the Crown of that Kingdom to Their Majesties they accordingly at three of the Clock met at the Council-Chamber and from thence were Conducted by Sir Charles Cotterel Master of the Ceremonies attended by most of the Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom who reside in and about this place to the Banqueting-House where the King and Queen came attended by many Persons of Quality the Sword being carried before them by the Lord Cardrosse and Their Majesties being placed on the Throne under a Rich Canopy they first presented a Letter from the Estates to his Majesty then the Instrument of Government Thirdly a Paper containing the Grievances which they desired might be Redressed and Lastly an Address to His Majesty for turning the Meeting of the said Estates into a Parliament All which being Signed by his Grace the Duke of Hamilton as President of the Meeting and
read to their Majesties the King returned to the Commissioners the following Answer WHen I engaged in this Vndertaking I had particular Regard and Consideration for Scotland and therefore I did emit a Declaration in relation to That as well as to this Kingdom which I intend to make good and effectual to them I take it very kindly that Scotland hath expressed so much Confidence in and Affection to Me They shall find Me willing to assist them in every thing that concerns the Weal and Interest of that Kingdom by making what Laws shall be necessary for the Security of their Religion Property and Liberty and to ease them of what may be justly grievous to them After which the Coronation-Oath was tendred to Their Majesties which the Earl of Argyle spoke word by word directly and the King and Queen repeated it after him holding Their Right Hands up after the manner of taking Oaths in Scotland The Meeting of the Estates of Scotland did Authorize their Commissioners to represent to His Majesty That that Clause in the Oath in relation to the rooting out of Hereticks did not import the destroying of Hereticks And that by the Law of Scotland no Man was to be persecuted for his private Opinion And even Obstinate and Convicted Hereticks were only to be denounced Rebels or Outlawed whereby their Moveable Estates are Confiscated His Majesty at the repeating that Clause in the Oath Did declare that He did not mean by these words That He was under any Obligation to become a Persecutor To which the Commissioners made Answer That neither the meaning of the Oath or the Law of Scotland did import it Then the King replyed That He took the Oath in that Sense and called for Witnesses the Commissioners and others present And then both Their Majesties Signed the said Coronation-Oath After which the Commissioners and several of the Scotish Nobility kissed Their Majesties Hands The Coronation OATH of England The Arch-bishop or Bishop shall say WIll You solemnly Promise and Swear to govern the People of this Kingdom of England and the Dominions thereto belonging according to the Statues in Parliament agreed on and the Laws and Customs of the same The King and Queen shall say I solemnly Promise so to do Arch-bishop or Bishop Will You to Your Power cause Law and Justice in Mercy to be Executed in all Your Judgments King and Queen I Will. Arch-bishop or Bishop Will You to the utmost of Your Power Maintain the Laws of God the true Profession of the Gospel and the Protestant Reformed Religion Established by Law And will You Preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of this Realm and to the Churches committed to their Charge all such Rights and Priviledges as by Law do or shall appertain unto them or any of them King and Queen All this I Promise to do After this the King and Qeen laying His and Her Hand upon the Holy Gospels shall say King and Queen The Things which I have here before Promised I will Perform and Keep So help me God Then the King and Queen shall kiss the Book The Coronation OATH of Scotland WE William and Mary King and Queen of Scotland faithfully Promise and Swear by this Our solemn Oath in presence of the Eternal God that during the whole course of Our Life we will serve the same Eternal God to the uttermost of Our Power according as he has required in his most holy Word reveal'd and contain'd in the New and Old Testament and according to the same Word shall maintain the True Religion of Christ Jesus the Preaching of his holy Word and the due and right Ministration of the Sacraments now Received and Preached within the Realm of Scotland and shall abolish and gainstand all false Religion contrary to the same and shall Rule the People committed to our Charge according to the Will and Command of God revealed in his aforesaid Word and according to the laudable Laws and Constitutions received in this Realm no ways repugnant to the said Word of the Eternal God and shall procure to the utmost of Our Power to the Kirk of God and whole Christian People true and perfect Peace in all time coming That we shall preserve and keep inviolated the Rights and Rents with all just Privileges of the Crown of Scotland neither shall we transfer nor alienate the same That we shall forbid and repress in all Estates and Degrees Reif Oppression and all kind of wrong And we shall Command and Procure that Justice and Equity in all Judgments be keeped to all persons without exception as the Lord and Father of all Mercies shall be merciful to us And we shall be careful to root out all Hereticks and Enemies to the true Worship of God that shall be Convicted by the true Kirk of God of the aforesaid Crimes out of Our Lands and Empire of Scotland And we faithfully affirm the things above written by Our Solemn Oath God save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY Proposals humbly offered to the Lords and Commons in the present Convention for settling of the Government c. My Lords and Gentlemen YOV are Assembled upon Matters of the highest Importance to England and all Christendom and the result of your Thoughts in this Convention will make a numerous Posterity Happy or Miserable If therefore I have met with any Thing that I think worthy of your Consideration I should think my self wanting in that duty which I owe to my Country and Mankind if I should not lay it before You. If there be as some say certain Lineaments in the Face of Truth with which one cannot be deceiv'd because they are not to be counterfeited I hope the Considerations which I presume to offer You will meet with your Approbation That bringing back our Constitution to its first and purest Original refining it from some gross Abuses and supplying its Defects You may be the Joy of the present Age and the Glory of Posterity FIrst 'T is necessary to distinguish between Power it self the Designation of the Persons Governing and the Form of Government For 1. All Power is from God as the Fountain and Original 2. The Designation of the Persons and the Form of Government is either First immediately from God as in the Case of Saul and David and the Government of the Jews or Secondly from the Community chusing some Form of Government and subjecting themselves to it But it must be noted that though Saul and David had a Divine Designation yet the People assembled and in a General Assembly by their Votes freely chose them Which proves that there can be no orderly or lasting Government without Consent of the People Tacit or Express'd and God himself would not put Men under a Government without their Consent And in case of a Conquest the People may be called Prisoners or Slaves which is a state contrary to the Nature of Man but they cannot be properly Subjects till their Wills be brought to submit to the Government
So that Conquest may make Way for a Government but it cannot constitute it Secondly There is a Supreme Power in every Community essential to it and inseparable from it by which if it be not limited immediately by God it can form it self into any kind of Government And in some extraordinary Occasions when the Safety and Peace of the Publick necessarily require it can supply the Defects reform the Abuses and re-establish the true Fundamentals of the Government by Purging Refining and bringing Things back to their first Original Which Power may be called The Supreme Power Real Thirdly When the Community has made choice of some Form of Government and subjected themselves to it having invested some Person or Persons with the Supreme Power The Power in those Persons may be called The Supream Power Personal Fourthly If this Form be a mix'd Government of Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy and for the easie Execution of the Laws the Executive Power be lodg'd in a single Person He has a Supream Power Personal quoad hoc Fifthly The Supreme Power Personal of England is in Kings Lords and Commons and so it was in Effect agreed to by King Charles the First in his Answer to the nineteen Popositions and resolved by the Convention of the Lords and Commons in the year 1660. And note That the Acts of that Convention tho' never confirmed by Parliament have been taken for Law and particularly by the Lord Chief Justice Hales Sixthly The Supreme Power Personal of England fails three Ways 1. 'T is dissolved For two Essential Parts fail 1. a King 2. a House of Commons which cannot be called according to Constitution the King being gone and the Freedom of Election being destroyed by the Kings Incroachments 2. The King has forfeited his Power several Ways Subjection to the Bishop of Rome is the Subjection against which our Laws cry loudest And even Barclay that Monarchical Politician acknowledges That if a King alienate his Kingdom or subject it to another he forfeits it And Grotius asserts That if a King really attempt to deliver up or subject his Kingdom he may be therein resisted And that if the King have part of the Supreme Power and the People or Senate the other part the King invading that part which is not his a just Force may be opposed and he may lose his Part of the Empire Grotius de Bello c. Cap. 72. But that the King has subjected the Kingdom to the Pope needs no Proof That he has usurp'd an absolute Power superieur to all Laws made the Peoples Share in the Legislative Power impertinent and useless and thereby invaded their just Rights none can deny 'T were in vain to multiply Instances of his Forfeitures And if we consider the Power exercis'd by him of late it will most evidently appear to all who understand the English Constitution that it admits of no such King nor any such Power 3. The King has deserted 1. By incapacitating himself by a Religion inconsistent with the Fundamentals of our Government 2. By forsaking the Power the Constitution allow'd him and usurping a Foreign one So that tho the Person remained the King was gone long ago 3. By Personal Withdrawing Seventhly The Supreme Power Real remains in the Community and they may act by their Original Power And tho every Particular Person is notwithstanding such Dissolution Forfeiture or Desertion subject to the Laws which were made by the Supreme Power Personal when in Being yet the Communities Power is not bound by them but is paramount all Laws made by the Supreme Power Personal And has a full Right to take such Measures for Settling the Government as they shall think most sure and effectual for the lasting Security and Peace of the Nation For we must note that it was the Community of England which first gave Being to both King and Parliament and to all the other Parts of our Constitution Eighthly The most Renowned Politician observes That those Kingdoms and Republicks subsist longest that are often renewed or brought back to their first Beginnings which is an Observation of Self-evident Truth and implies That the Supreme Power Real has a Right to renew or bring back And the most-ingenious Lawson observes in his Politica That the Community of England in the late Times had the greatest Advantage that they or their Ancestors had had for many Ages for this purpose tho God hid it from their Eyes But the wonderful Concurrence of such a series of Providences as we now see and admire gives ground to hope That the Veil is removed and the Nation will now see the Things that concern their Peace Ninthly The Acts done and executed by the Supreme Power Personal when in Being have so modell'd the Parts and Persons of the Community that the Original Constitution is the best justest and the most desirable The Royal Family affords a Person that both Heaven and Earth point out for King There are Lords whose Nobility is not affected by the Dissolution of the Government and are the subject Matter of a House of Lords And there are Places which by Custom or Charter have Right to choose Representatives of the Commons Tenthly There are inextricable Difficulties in all other Methods For 1. There is no Demise of the King neither Civil nor Natural 2. There is consequently no Descent 3. The Community only has a Right to take Advantage of the King's Forfeiture or Desertion 4. Whatever other Power may be imagin'd in the two Houses as Houses of Parliament it cannot justify it self to the Reason of any who understand the Bottom of our Constitution 5. By this Method all Popish Successors may be excluded and the Government secured in case all the Protestants of the Family die without Issue And this by the very Constitution of England And the Question can never arise about the Force or the Lawfulness of a Bill of Exclusion 6. The Convention will not be oblig'd to take Oaths c. Eleventhly If these things be granted and the Community be at Liberty to act as above it will certainly be most advisable not only for the Security and Welfare of the Nation but if rightly understood for the Interest of their Royal Highnesses to limit the Crown as follows To the Prince of Orange during his Life yet with all possible Honour and Respect to the Princess whose Interests and Inclinations are inseparably the same with his Remainder to the Princess of Orange and the Heirs of her Body Remainder to the Princess of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body Remainder to the Heirs of the Body of the Prince of Orange Remainder as an Act of Parliament shall appoint This will have these Conveniences among others 1. Husband and Wife are but one Person in Law and her Husbands Honour is hers 2. It puts the present Kingly Power into the best Hand in the World which without Flattery is agreed on by all Men. 3. It asserts the above said Power in the
Community 4. It will be some Acknowledgment to the Prince for what he has done for the Nation And it is worthy Observation that before the Theocracy of the Jews ceased the manner of the Divine Designation of their Judges was by God's giving the People some Deliverance by the hand of the Person to whose Government they ought to submit and this even in that time of extraordinary Revelations Thus Othniel Gideon Jephthah Sampson and others were invested by Heaven with the Supreme Authority And though Joshua had an immediate Command from God to succeed Moses and an Anointing to that purpose by the laying on of Moses's Hands Yet the Foundation of the People's Submission to him was laid in Jordan And I challenge the best Historians to give an Instance since that Theocracy ceased of a Designation of any Person to any Government more visibly Divine than that which we now admire If the Hand of Providence miraculously and timely disposing Natural Things in every Circumstance to the best advantage should have any influence upon Mens Minds most certainly we ought not here to be insensible If the Voice of the People be the Voice of God it never spoke louder If a Nation of various Opinions Interests and Factions from a turbulent and fluctuating State falls into a serene and quiet Calm and Mens Minds are strangely united on a sudden it shews from whence they are influenced In a word if the Hand of God is to be seen in Human Affairs and his Voice to be heard upon Earth we cannot any where since the ceasing of Miracles find a clearer and more remarkable Instance than is to be observ'd in the present Revolution If one examines the Posture of Foreign Affairs making way for the Prince's Expedition by some sudden Events and Occurrences which no Human Wisdom or Power could have brought about if one observes that Divine Influence which has directed all his Counsels and crown'd his Undertakings notwithstanding such innumerable Dangers and Difficulties with constant Honour and Success If one considers how happily and wonderfully both Persons and Things are changed in a little time and without Blood it looks like so many marks of God's Favour by which he thinks fit to point him out to us in this extraordinary Conjuncture I will trouble you but with one Consideration more which is That the two things most necessary in this Affair are Unanimity and Dispatch For without both these your Counsels will have little Effect In most things 't is good to be long in resolving but in some 't is fatal not to conclude immediately And presence of Mind is as great a Vertue as Rashness is a Vice For the turns of Fortune are sometimes so quick that if Advantage be not taken in the critical hour 't is for ever lost But I hope your Lordships and all those Gentlemen who compose this August Assembly will proceed with so much Zeal and Harmony that the Result of your present Consultations may be a lasting and grateful Monument to Posterity of your Integrity Courage and Conduct The Late Honourable Convention proved a Legal Parliament I. THE necessity of a Parliament agreed by the Lords and Commons Voting that the Throne is Vacant for there being a Vacancy there follows an immediate necessity of setling the Government especially the Writs being destroyed and the Great Seal carried away put a period to all publick Justice and then there must be a supply by such means as the necessity requires or a failure of Government II. Consider the Antecedents to the calling the Convention that is about three hundred of the Commons which is a majority of the fullest House that can be made above sixty Lords being a greater number than any part divided amounted to at this great Meeting the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of the City of London by application to His then Highness the Prince of Orange desired him to accept of the Administration of Publick Affairs Military and Civil which he was pleased to do to the great satisfaction of all good People and after that His Highness was desired to Issue forth his Circular Letters to the Lords and the like to the Coroners and in their absence to the Clerks of the Peace to Elect Knights Citizens and Burgesses this was more than was done in fifty nine for the calling a Parliament in April 1660. for there the Summons was not real but fictitious i. e. in the names of the Keepers of the Liberties of England a meer Notion set up as a Form there being no such Persons but a meer Ens rationis impossible really to exist so that here was much more done than in 1659 and all really done which was possible to be invented as the Affairs then stood Besides King Charles the 2d. had not abdicated the Kingdom but was willing to return and was at Breda whither they might have sent for Writs and in the mean time have kept their form of Keepers of the Liberties c. But in the present case there was no King in being nor any style or form of Government neither real or notional left so that in all these respects more was done before and at the calling of this Great Convention than for calling that Parliament for so I must call it yet that Parliament made several Acts in all thirty seven as appears by Keebles Statutes and several of them not confirmed I shall instance but in one but it is one which there was occasion to use in every County of England I mean the Act for Confirming and Restoring Ministers being the 17th of that Sessions all the Judges allowed of this as an Act of Parliament tho never confirmed which is a stronger case than that in question for there was only fictitious Summons here a real one III. That without the Consent of any Body of the People this at the Request of a Majority of the Lords more than half the number of the Commons duly chosen in King Ch. the 2d. time besides the great Body of the City of London being at least esteem'd a 5th part of the Kingdom yet after the King's Return he was so well satisfied with the calling of that Parliament that it was Enacted by the King Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament that the Lords and Commons then Sitting at Westmiuster in the present Parliament were the two Houses of Parliament notwithstanding any want of the Kings Writs or Writ of Summons or any defect whatsoever and as if the King had been present at the beginning of the Parliament this I take to be a full Judgment in full Parliament of the case in question and much stronger than the present case is and this Parliament continued till the 29th of December next following and made in all thirty seven Acts as abovementioned The 13 Caroli 2. chap. 7. a full Parliament called by the Kings Writ recites the other of 12 Caroli 2. and that after his Majesties return they were continued till the 29th of December
and then dissolved and that several Acts passed this is the plain Judgment of another Parliament 1. Because it says they were continued which shews they had a real being capable of being continued for a Confirmation of a void Grant has no effect and Confirmation shews a Grant only voidable so the continuance there shewed it at most but voidable and when the King came and confirm'd it all was good 2. The dissolving it then shews they had a being for as ex nihilo nihil fit so super nihil nil operatur as out of nothing nothing can be made so upon nothing nothing can operate Again the King Lords and Commons make the great Corporation or Body of the Kingdom and the Commons are legally taken for the Free-holders Inst 4. p. 2. Now the Lords and Commons having Proclaimed the King the defect of this great Corporation is cured and all the Essential parts of this great Body Politique united and made compleat as plainly as when the Mayor of a Corporation dies and another is chosen the Corporation is again perfect and to say that which perfects the great Body Politique should in the same instant destroy it I mean the Parliament is to make contradictions true simul semel the perfection and destruction of this great Body at one instant and by the same Act. Then if necessity of Affairs was a forcible Argument in 1660 a time of great peace not only in England but throughout Europe and almost in all the World certainly 't is of a greater force now when England is scarce delivered from Popery and Slavery when Ireland has a mighty Army of Papists and that Kingdom in hazard of final destruction if not speedily prevented and when France has destroyed most of the Protestants there and threatens the ruine of the Low-Countries from whence God has sent the wonderful Assistance of our Gracious and therefore most Glorious King and England cannot promise safety from that Foreign Power when forty days delay which is the least can be for a new Parliament and considering we can never hope to have one more freely chosen because first it was so free from Court-influence or likelihood of all design that the Letters of Summons issued by him whom the great God in infinite Mercy raised to save us to the hazard of his Life and this done to protect the Protestant Religion and at a time when the people were all concerned for one Common interest of Religion and Liberty it would be vain when we have the best King and Queen the World affords a full house of Lords the most solemnly chosen Commons that ever were in the remembrance of any Man Living to spend Money and lose time I had almost said to despise Providence and take great pains to destroy our selves If any object Acts of Parliament mentioning Writs and Summons c. I answer the Prededent in 1660 is after all those Acts. In private cases as much as has been done in point of necessity a Bishop Provincial dies and sede vacant a Clerk is presented to a Benefice the Presentation to the Dean and Chapter is good in this case of Necessity and if in a Vacancy by the Death of a Bishop a Presentation shall be good to the Dean and Chapter rather than a prejudice should happen by the Church lying void Surely a fortiori Vacancy of the Throne may be supplied without the formality of a Writ and the great Convention turn'd to a Real Parliament A Summons in all points is of the same real force as a Writ for a Summons and a Writ differ no more than in name the thing is the same in all Substantial parts the Writ is Recorded in Chancery so are His Highnesses Letters the proper Officer Endorses the Return so he does here for the Coroner in defect of the Sheriff is the proper Officer the People Choose by Virtue of the Letters c. quae re concordant parum differunt they agree in Reality and then what difference is there between the one and the other Object A Writ must be in Actions at Common Law else all Pleading after will not make it good but Judgment given may be Reversed by a Writ of Error Answ The case differs first because Actions between party and party are Adversary Actions but Summons to Parliament are not so but are Mediums only to have â—n Election 2. In Actions at Law the Defendant may plead to the Writ but there is no plea to a Writ for electing Members to serve in Parliament and for this I have Littleton's Argument there never was such a Plea therefore none lies Object That they have not taken the Test Answ They may take the Test yet and then all which they do will be good for the Test being the distinguishing Mark of a Protestant from a Papist when that is taken the end of the Law is performed Object That the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy ought to be taken and that the new ones are not legal Answ The Convention being the Supream Power have abolish'd the old Oaths and have made new ones and as to the making new Oaths the like was done in Alfreds time when they chose him King vide Mirror of Justice Chap. 1. for the Heptarchy being turn'd to a Monarchy the precedent Oaths of the seven Kings could not be the same King Alfred swore Many Precedents may be cited where Laws have been made in Parliament without the King 's Writ to summon them which for brevity's sake I forbear to mention For a farewel the Objections quarrel at our Happiness fight against our Safety and aim at that which may indanger Destruction The Present Convention a Parliament I. THat the formality of the Kings Writ of Summons is not so essential to an English Parliament but that the Peers of the Realm and the Commons by their Representatives duly Elected may legally act as the great Council and representative Body of the Nation though not summoned by the King especially when the circumstances of the time are such that such Summons cannot be had will I hope appear by these following Observations First The Saxon Government was transplanted hither out of Germany where the meeting of the Saxons in such Assemblies was at certain fixed times viz. at the New and Full Moon But after their Transmigration hither Religion changing other things changed with it and the times for their publick Assemblies in conformity to the great Solemnities celebrated by Christians came to be changed to the Feasts of Easter Pentecost and the Nativity The lower we come down in Story the seldomer we find these General Assemblies to have been held and sometimes even very anciently when upon extraordinary occasions they met out of course a Precept an Edict or Sanction is mentioned to have Issued from the King But the Times and the very place of their ordinary Meeting having been certain and determined in the very first and eldest times that we meet with any mention of
Authorities out of this Realm as also for restoring and uniting to the Imperial Crown of this Realm the antient Jurisdictions Authorities Superiorities and Preheminences to the same of Right belonging and appertaining by reason whereof the Subjects of this Realm were kept in good order and disburthened of divers great and intolerable Charges and Exactions until such time as all the said good Laws and Statutes by one Act of Parliament made in the first and second Years of the Reigns of King Philip and Queen Mary were clearly repealed and made void by reason of which Act of Repeal the Subjects of England were eftsoons brought under an usurped Foreign Power and Authority and yet remained in that Bondage to their intolerable Charges and then Enacts that for the repressing of the said usurped Foreign Power and the restoring of the Rights Jurisdictions and Preheminences appertaining to the Imperial Crown of this Realm The said Act made in the first and second Years of the said late King Philip and Queen Mary except as therein is excepted be repealed void and of none effect The said Act of Primo Elizabethae proceeds First to revive by express words many Statutes that had been made in King Henry the Eighth's time and repealed in Queen Mary's and Secondly to abolish all Foreign Authority in these words viz. And to the intent that all Vsurped and Foreign Power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal may for ever be clearly extinguished and never to be used or obeyed within this Realm c. May it please your Highness that it may be Enacted That no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate Spiritual or Temporal shall at any time after the last day of this Session of Parliament use enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Superiority Authority Preheminence or Priviledg Spiritual or Ecclesiastical within this Realm c. but the same shall be clearly abolished out of this Realm c. Any Statute Custom c. to the contrary notwithstanding Thirdly The said Act restores in the next Paragraph to the Imperial Crown of this Realm such Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities c. Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority had heretofore been or might lawfully be exercised or used c. Fourthly the Act impowers the Queen to assign Commissioners to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction And Fifthly For the better observation and maintenance of this Act imposes upon Ecclesiastical and Temporal Officers and Ministers c. the Oath commonly call'd the Oath of Supremacy which runs thus viz. The Oath of SUPREMACY I A. B. do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience that the Queen's Highness is the only Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other her Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things and Causes as Temporal and that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Foreign Jurisdictions Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and to my Power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminencies and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book It cannot but be obvious to every impartial Peruser of the Statute especially if he have the least knowledg of what Condition the Government of this Nation was reduced to by Papal Encroachments and Usurpations That the Makers of this Law and the Sense of this Oath was no other in general than that the People of this Realm should bear Faith and true Allegiance even in Matters relating to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and not to the Pope or any foreign pretended Jurisdiction What the several Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queen her Heirs and Successors are in particular and what the Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities United and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm are in particular is not material here to be discoursed of though the several Statutes made in King Henry the Eighth's time and King Edward the Sixth's and revived in Queen Elizabeth's will unfold many of them and clear the distinction which the OATH makes betwixt Authorities granted or belonging to the King and Authorities united and annexed to the Imperial Crown and Mr. Prynn's History of the Pope's intolerable Usurpations upon the Liberties of the Kings and Subjects of England and Ireland together with Sir Roger Twisden's Historical Vindication of the Church of England in point of Schism will in a great measure acquaint the Curious how matters stood with us here with respect to Church-Government before the Pope had wrested the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction almost wholly out of the hands of our Kings our Parliaments and Courts of Justice In short those Jurisdictions c. are such as the Antient Laws Customs and Usages of the Realm or latter Acts of Parliament have Created Given Limited and Directed The Makers of this Law did not design to impose upon the People of England any new Terms of Allegiance but to secure the old ones exclusive of any Pretences of the Pope or See of Rome Nor are there any words in this Oath more strong more binding to Duty and Allegiance than are words which the old Oath of Fealty is conceived in which all Men were antiently obliged and may yet be required to take to the King in the Court-Leet at twelve years of Age which runs thus viz. You shall swear that from this day forward you shall be true and faithful to our Soveraign Lord King James and his Heirs And Faith and Truth shall bear of Life and Limb and terrene Honour And you shall not know nor hear of any ill or damage intended to him that you shall not defend So help you Almighty God This is as full and comprehensive as the Oath of Supremacy I do promise that I shall bear faith and true Allegiance to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions c. So that the true sense and meaning of the Oath of Supremacy is this viz. I will be true and faithful to our Soveraign Lord the King his Heirs and lawful Successors and will to my Power assist and defend all his Rights notwithstanding any pretence made by the Pope or any other Foreign Power to exercise Jurisdiction within the Realm all which Foreign Power I utterly renounce in Matters Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal The Oath of Allegiance is appointed by the Act of 3 Jac. 1. Chap. 4. Intituled An Act for discovering and repressing of Popish Recusants It
into such Particulars as time and occasion required So that the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance not having altered the terms of Allegiance due from the People of England to their Princes if their Princes by antient Laws of the Realm and by the Practice of our Forefathers were liable to be deposed by the great Councils of the Nation for Male-administration Oppressions and other Exorbitances for not keeping their Coronation-Oaths for Insufficiency to govern c. then they continue still liable to be deposed in like manner the said Oaths or any Obligation contracted thereby notwithstanding For the Practice of former times I shall begin with a very antient Precedent in the Kingdom of the West-Saxons viz. Cudred King of West-Saxony being dead Sigebert his Kinsman succeeded him in that Kingdom and held it but a small time for being puft up with Pride by the Successes of King Cudred his Predecessor he grew insolent and became intolerable to his People And when he evil entreated them all manner of ways and either wrested the Laws for his own Ends or eluded them for his own Advantage Cumbra one of his chief Officers at the request of the whole People intimated their Complaints to the Savage King And because he persuaded the King to govern his People more mildly and that laying aside his Barbarity he would endeavour to appear acceptable to God and Man the King immediately commanded him to be put to Death and increasing his Tyranny became more cruel and intolerable than before whereupon in the beginning of the second Year of his Reign because he was arriv'd to an incorrigible pitch of Pride and Wickedness the NOBLES and the PEOPLE OF THE WHOLE KINGDOM assembled together and upon MATURE DELIBERATION did by UNANIMOUS CONSENT OF THEM ALL drive him out of the Kingdom In whose stead they chose Kenwolph an excellent Youth and of the Royal Blood to be King over the People and Kingdom of the West-Saxons Collect. p. 769 770. ibid. p. 795 796. Cudredo Rege West-Saxiae defuncto Sigebertus Cognatus ejus sibi in eodem Regno successit brevi tamen tempore Regnum tenens nam ex Cudredi Regis Precessoris sui eventibus tumefactus insolens intolerabilis suis fuit cum autem eos modis omnibus male tractaret legesque vel ad commodum suum depravaret vel pro commodo suo devitaret Cumbra Consul ejus Nobilissimus prece totius populi Regi fero eorum querimonias intimavit Et quia ipse Regi suaserat ut leniùs Populum suum regeret inhumanitate depositâ Deo hominibus amabilis appareret Rex eum impiâ nece mox interfici jubens populo saevior intolerabilior quà m priùs suam tyrannidem augmentavit unde in principio secundi Anni Regni sui cum incorrigibilis superbiae nequitiae esset Congregati sunt PROCERES POPVLVS totius REGNI eum PROVIDA DELIBERATIONE à Regno VNANIMI CONSENSV OMNIVM expellebant Cujus loco Kenwolfum juvenem egregium de Regiâ stirpe oriundum in Regem super Populum Regnum Wex-Saxiae elegerunt Collect. 769 770. ibidem p. 795 796. This Deposition of King Sigebert appears to have been done in a formal and orderly Manner viz. in a Convention of the Proceres and the Populus totius Regni and it was done providâ deliberatione unanimi Omnium Consensu and consequently was not an Act of Heat Rebellion or Tumultuary Insurrection of the People But was what the whole Nation apprehended to be Legal Just and according to the Constitution of their Government and no breach of their Oaths of Allegiance Nor have we any reason to wonder that the English Nation should free themselves in such a manner from Oppression if we consider that by an antient Positive Law Enacted in K. Edward the Conf. time and confirmed by William the Conqueror the Kings of England are liable to be deposed if they turn Tyrants The King because he is the Vicar of the Supream King is constituted to this end and purpose that he may govern his earthly Kingdom and the People of the Lord and especially to govern and reverence God's holy Church and defend it from Injuries and root out destroy and wholly to extirpate all Wrong-doers Which if he do not perform HE SHALL NOT RETAIN SO MUCH AS THE NAME OF A KING And a little after The King must act all things according to Law and by the Judgment of the Proceres Regni For Right and Justice ought to reign in the Realm rather than a perverse Will It is the Law that makes Right but Wilfulness Violence and Force is not Right The King ought above all things to fear and love God and to keep his Commandments throughout his Kingdom He ought also to preserve to cherish maintain govern and defend against its Adversaries the Church within his Kingdom entirely and in all freedom according to the Constitutions of the Fathers and of his Predecessors that God may be honoured above all things and always be had before Men's Eyes He ought also to set up good Laws and approv'd Customs and to abolish evil ones and put them away in his Kingdom He ought to do right Judgment in his Kingdom and maintain Justice by advice of the Proceres Regni sui All these things the King in proper Person looking upon and touching the Holy Gospels and upon the Holy and Sacred Relicks must swear in the Presence of his People and Clergy to do before he be crown'd by the Archbishops and Bishops of the Kingdom Lamb. of the Antient Laws of England pag. 142. Rex autem quia Vicarius summi Regis est ad hoc est constitutus ut Regnum terrenum Populum Domini super omnia sanctam veneretur Ecclesiam ejus regat ab injuriosis defendat maleficos ab eâ evellat destruat penitus disper Quod nisi fecerit nec nomen Regis in eo constabit Et paulò post Debet Rex omnia ritè facere in Regno per Judicium Procerum Regni Debet enim Jus Justitia magis regnare in Regno quà m voluntas prava Lex est semper quod Jus facit voluntas autem Violentia Vis non est Jus. Debet verò Rex Deum timere super omnia diligere mandata ejus per totum Regum suum servare Debet etiam sanctam Ecclesiam Regni sui cum omni integritate libertate juxta Constitutiones Patrum Praedecessorum servare fovere manutenere regere contrainimicos defendere it a ut Deus prae coeteris honoretur prae oculis semper habeatur Debet etiam bonas Leges Consuetudines approbat as erigere pravas autem delere omnes à Regno deponere Debet Judicium rectum in Regno suo facere Justitiam per Consilâ—um Procerum Regni sui tenere Ista verò debet omnia Rex in propriâ personâ inspectis tactis sacrosanctis Evangeli is
super sacras sanctas reliquias coram Regno Sacerdotio Clero jurare antequam ab Archiepiscopis Episcopis Regni coronetur Lamb. de priscis Anglorum Legibus p. 142. Another Instance of the Deposition of a King of England subsequent to this Law we find in King John's time whose Oppressions and Tyrannical Government our Histories are full of Of which take this following Account out of a very Antient Historian Whereas the said John had sworn solemnly at his Coronation as the manner is that he would preserve the Rights and Usages of the Church and Realm of England yet contrary to his Oath he subjected as far as in him lay the Kingdom of England which has always been free and made it tributary to the Pope without the Advice and Consent of his Barons subverting good Customs and introducing evil ones endeavouring by many Oppressions and many ways to enslave both the Church and the Realm which Oppressions you know better than I as having felt them by manifold Experience For which Causes when after many Applications made War was waged against him by his Barons at last amongst other things it was agreed with his express Consent that in case the said John should return to his former Villanies the Barons should be at liberty to recede from their Allegiance to him never to return to him more But he after a few days made his latter end worse than his beginning endeavouring not only to oppress his Barons but wholly to exterminate them who therefore in a GENERAL ASSEMBLY and with the APPROBATION of ALL THE REALM adjudging him unworthy to be King chose US for their Lord and King Collect. p. 1868 1869. Chron. W. Thorn Cum praefatus Johannes in Coronatione suâ solennitèr prout moris est jurasset se Jura Consuetudines Ecclesiae Regni Angliae conservaturum contra juramentum suum absque consilio vel consensu Baronum suorum idem Regnum quod semper fuit liberum quantum in ipso fuit Domino Papa subjecit fecit tributarium bonas consuetudines subvertens malas indutens tam Ecclesiam quam Regnum multis oppressionibus multisque modis studens ancellare quas oppressiones vos meliùs nostis quam nos ut qui eas familiari sensistis experimento Pro quibus cum post multas requisitiones guerra mota esset contra ipsum à Baronibus suis tandem inter caetera de ejus expresso Consensu it à convenit ut si idem Johannes ad flagitia prima rediret ipse Barones ab ejus fidelitate recederent nunquam ad eum postmodùm reversuri Verùm ipse nihilominus paucis diebus evolutis fecit novissima sua pejora prioribus studens Barones suos non tantum opprimere sed potiùs penitùs exterminare Qui DE COMMVNI REGNI CONSILIO APPROBATIONE ipsum Regno judicantes indignum nos in Regem Dominum elegerunt Collect. 1868 1869. Chron. W. Thorn Lewis his Letter to the Abbot of St. Austins Canterbury The next Instance shall be that of King Edward the Second the Record of whose Deposition if it were extant would probably disclose all the Legal Formalities that were then accounted proper for the deposing an Unjust Oppressive King But they were cancelled and imbezled as is highly probable from Rastal's Stat. pag. 170 171. compar'd with the Articles exhibited in Parliament against King Richard the Second of which hereafter in King Richard the Second's time and by his Order Yet the Articles themselves are preserv'd in the Collect. and are as followeth viz. Accorde est que Sire Edward Fitz aisnè du Roy ait le Goverment du Royalme soit Roy Couronne pur les causes que s' ensuent 1. Pur ceo que la Person le Roy n' est pas suffisant de Governer Car en tout son temps il ad estre mene governe per auters que ly ont mavaisement conseillez à deshonour de ly destruction de Saint Esglise de tout son People sanz ceo que il le vousist veer ou conuster lequel il fust bon ou mauvays ou remedie mettre au faire le voufist quant il fuit requis par les grants sages de son Royalme ou souffrir que amende fuist faite 2. Item Par son temps il ne se voloit doner à bon Counsel ne le croire ne à bon Government de son Royalme mes se ad done tous jours as Ouvrages Occupations nient Convenables enterlessant l'esploit des besoignes de son Royalme 3. Item Par defaut de bon goverment ad il perdu le Royalme d'Escoce auters Terres Seigneuries en Gascoyne Hyrland les queux son Pere le leisa en pees amistè du Roy de France dets mults des auters Grants 4. Item Par sa fiertè qualte par mauvays Counsel ad il destruit Saint Esglise les Persons de Saint Esglise tenus en prison les uns les auters en distresce auxynt plusors Grants Nobles de sa terre mys à honteuse mort enprisones exulets desheritez 5. Item Là ou il est tenus par son serment à faire droit à toute il ne l' ad pas volu faire pur son propre proffitt covetise de ly de ces maveis consailires que ount este pres de ly ne ad garde les auters Points del serment qu' il fist à son Coronement si come il fuest tenus 6. Item Il deguerpist son Royalme fist tant come en ly fust que son Royalme son People fust perduz que pys est pur la cruaute de ly defaute de sa personne il est trove incorrigible saunz esperance de amendment les queux choses sont si notoires qu' ils ne pount este desdits For these Causes De consilio assensu omnium Praelatorum Comitum Baronum totius Communitatis Regni amotus est à regimine Regni Apolog. Ade de Orleton Collect p. 2765 2766. It is accorded that Prince Edward the King 's eldest Son shall have the Government of the Kingdom and be crowned King for the Causes following 1. For that the Person of the King is insufficient to govern for that during his whole Reign he has been led and governed by others who have given him evil Counsel to his Dishonour and the Destruction of Holy-Church and of all his People he being unwilling to consider or know what was good or evil or to provide remedy even when it was required of him by the great and wise Men of his Realm or suffer any to be made 2. Also during all his time he would neither hearken to nor believe good Counsel nor apply himself to the good Government of his Realm but hath always given himself over to Things and Occupations altogether inconvenient omitting in the mean
time the necessary Affairs and Business of the Kingdom 3. Also For want of good Government he hath lost the Kingdom of Scotland and other Lands and Territories in Gascoin and Ireland which his Father left him in peace and friendship with the French King and with many other Grandees 4. Also By his Pride and Arrogance and evil Counsel he has destroyed Holy-Church imprisoning some Persons thereof and put others in distress And also he hath put to a shameful death imprisoned and disinherited many of the great Men and Nobles of the Land 5. Also Whereas he is bound by his Oath to administer Justice to all he would not do it through his own Covetousness and that of Evil Counsellors that were about him neither hath he kept the other Points of the Oath which he took at his Coronation as he was bound 6. Also He hath wasted his Kingdom and did what in him lay that his Realm and People should be destroy'd and which is worse by his Cruelty and personal Failings or Defects he is found to be incorrigible and past all hopes of amendment All which things are so notorious that they cannot be denied For these Causes by advice and assent of all the Prelats Earls and Barons and of the whole Commonalty of the Kingdom he was deposed from the Government Apology of Adam de Orleton Collect. p. 2765 2766. These Proceedings against King Edward the Second are no-where extant but in that Author Which is the less to be wondred at if we consider that in King Richard the Second's time the King 's parasitical Court-Favourites so influenced the Judges That to the Question How he was to be punished that moved in the Parliament that the Statute should be sent for whereby Edward the Son of King Edward was another time indicted in the Parliament They answered That as well he that moved as the other who by force of the same motion brought the said Statute into the Parliament-House be as Criminals and Traitors worthy to be punished V. Rastal 's Statutes 170 171. Tho for that and other extravagant pernicious and treasonable Opinions delivered those Judges were severely punished as is notoriously known And also That it was afterwards one Article of Impeachment against King Richard the Second That he had cancelled and razed sundry Records In King Richard the Second's time many Animosities arose from time to time betwixt him and his Parliaments insomuch that in the eleventh year of his Reign the Parliament then sitting at London the King absented himself from them and staid at Eltham refusing to come at them and join with them in the Publick Affairs upon which occasion the Lords and Commons sent Messengers to him with an Address which the Historian H. Knighton sets forth at large and which I will here give the Reader a Transcript of at large because it will afford many useful Inferences and Observations Salubri igitur usi consilio miserunt de communi Assensu totius Parliamenti Dominum Thomam de Wodestoke Ducem Glocestriae Thomam de Arundell Episcopum Elyensem ad Regem apud Eltham qui salutarent eum ex parte Procerum Communium Parliamenti sui sub tali sensu verborum ei referentes vota eorum Domine Rex Proceres Domini atque totus populus Communitatis Parliamenti vestri cum humillimâ subjectione se commendant excellentissimo Regalis Dignitatis vestrae cupientes prosperum iter invincibilis honoris vestri contra inimicorum potentiam validissimum vinculum pacis dilectionis cordis vestri erga subditos vestros in augmentum commodi vestri erga Deum salutem animae vestrae ad inedicibilem consolationem totius Populi vestri quem regis Ex quorum parte haec vobis intimamus Quod ex antiquo Statuto habemus consuetudine laudabili approbata cujus contrarietati dici non valebit quod Rex noster convocare potest Dominos Proceres Regni atque Communes semel in anno ad Parliamentum suum tanquam ad summam curiam totius Regni in quâ omnis aequitas relucere deberet absque qualibet scrupulositate vel nota tanquam Sol in ascensu meridiei ubi pauperes divites pro refrigerio tranquillitatis pacis repulsione injuriarum refugium infallibile quaerere possent ac etiam errata Regni reformare de Statu Gubernatione Regis Regni cum sapientiori consilio tractare us inimici Regis Regni intrinseci hostes extrinseci destruantur repellantur quomodò convenientius honorificentius fieri poterit cum salubri tractatu in eo disponere praevidere qualiter quaeque onera incumbentia Regi Regno levius ad ediam communitatis supportari poterunt Videtur etiam iis quod ex quo onera supportant incumbentia habent etiam supervidere qualiter per quos eorum bona catalla expendantur Dicunt etiam quod habent ex antiquo Statuto quod si Rex à Parliamento suo se alienaverit suâ sponte non aliquâ infirmitate aut aliquâ aliâ de causâ necessitatis sed per immoderatam voluntatem protervè se subtraxerit per absentiam temporis quadraginta dierum tanquam de vexatione populi sui gravibus eorum expensis non curans extunc licitum omnibus singulis eorum absque domigerio Regis redire ad propria unicuique eorum in patriam suam remeare Et jam vos ex longiore tempore absentâstis quâ de causâ nesciunt venire renuistis Ad haec Rex Jam planè consideramus quod Populus noster atque Communes intendunt resistere atque contra nos insurgere moliuntur in tali infestatione melius nobis non videtur quin cognatum nostrum Regem Francia ab eo consilium auxilium petere contra insidiantes nos ei submittere potiùs quà m succumbere subditis nostris Ad haec illi responderunt Non est hoc vobis sanum consilium sed magis ducens ad inevitabile detrimentum nam Rex Franciae capitalis inimicus vester est Regni vestri adversarius permaximus si in terram Regni vestri pedem figeret potiùs vos spoliare laboraret Regnum vestrum invadere vosque à sublimitate Regalis solii expellere quam vobis aliquatenùs manus adjutrices cum favore apponere si quod absit ejus suffragio quandoque indigeretis Ad memoriam igitur revocetis qualiter avus vester Edwardus tertius Rex similiter pater Edwardus Princeps nomine ejus in sudore angustiis in omni tempore suo per innumerabiles labores in frigori calore certaverunt indefesse pro conquisitione Regni Franciae quod eis jure haereditario attinebat vobis per successionem post eos Reminiscemini quoque qualitèr Domini Regni Proceres atque Communes innumerahiles tam de Regno Angliae quam Franciae Reges quoque Domini de aliis
Regnis atque populi innumerabiles in Guerrâ illâ mortem mortis periculum sustinuerunt bona quoque catalla inaestimabilia thesauros innumerabiles pro sustentatione hujus guerrae Communes Regni hujus indefesse effuderunt Et quod graviùs dolendum est jam in diebus vestris tanta onera iis imposita pro guerris vestris sustinendis supportaverunt quod ad tantam pauperiem incredibilem deducti sunt quod nec reditus suos pro suis tenementis solvere possunt nec Regi subvenire nec vitae necessaria sibi ipsis ministrare depauperatur Regia potestas Dominorum Regni magnatum infelicitas adducitur atque totius populi debilitas Nam Rex depauperari nequit qui divitem habet populum nec dives esse potest qui pauperes habet communes Et mala haec omnia redundant non solum Regi sed omnibus singulis Dominis Proceribus Regni unicuique in suo gradu Et haec omnia eveniunt per iniquos ministros Regis qui malè gubernaverunt Regem Regnum usque in praesens Et nisi manus citiùs apponamus adjutrices remedii fulcimentum adhibeamus Regnum Angliae dolorosè attenuabitur tempore quo minus opinamur Sed unum aliud de nuncio nostro superest nobis ex parte populi vestri vobis intimare Habent enim EX ANTIQUO STATUTO de facto non longe retroactis temporibus experienter quod dolendum est habito si Rex EX MALIGNO CONSILIO QUOCUNQUE vel INEPTA CONTUMACIA aut CONTEMPTU seu PROTERVA VOLUNTATE SINGULARI aut QUOVIS MODO IRREGULARI se alienaverit à populo suo nec voluerit per jura Regni Statuta ac laudabiles Ordinationes cum salubri consilio Dominorum Procerum Regni gubernari regulari sed capitose in suis insanis consiliis propriam voluntatem suam singularem proterve exercere extunc licitum est iis cum communi assensu consensu Populi Regni ipsum REGEM DE REGALI SOLIO ABROGARE propinquiorem aliquem de stirpe Regiâ loco ejus in Regni solio sublimare H. Knighton Collect. 2681. Wherefore taking wholsome Advice they sent by common Assent of the whole Parliament the Lord Thomas de Woodstock Duke of Glocester and Thomas de Arundell Bishop of Ely to the King to Eltham to salute him on behalf of the Lords and Commons of his Parliament who express'd their Desires to the King to this effect Sir The Lords and all the Commons of your Parliament have themselves commended to your most excellent Majesty desiring the Success of your invincible Honour against the Power of your Enemies and a most firm Bond of Peace and Love in your Heart towards your Subjects for your good God-wards and the good of your Soul and to the unspeakable Comfort of all your People whom you govern On whose behalf we intimate these things to you That it appears to us by an antient Statute and by laudable and approved Vsage which cannot be deny'd that our King can call together the Peers of the Realm and the Commons once a year to his Parliament as to the supream Court of the whole Kingdom in which all Right and Justice ought to shine forth without any doubt or stain as the Sun at Noon-day where Poor and Rich may find an infallible Refuge to enjoy the Refreshments of Tranquillity and Peace and for repelling of Injuries where also Errors in Government are to be reformed and the State and Government of King and Kingdom treated upon by sage Advice and the destroying and repelling of both intestine and foreign Enemies to the King and Kingdom with most Convenience and Honour may be debated upon and provided for as also in what manner the Charges incumbent upon the King and Kingdom may be born with most ease to the Commonalty They conceive likewise that since they bear the incumbent Charges it concerns them to inspect how and by whom their Goods and Chattels are expended They say also that it appears to them by an antient Statute that if the King absent himself from his Parliament voluntarily not by reason of Sickness or for any other necessary cause but through an inordinate Will shall wantonly absent himself by the space of forty days as not regarding the Vexation of his People and their great Expences it shall then be lawful to all and singular of them to return to their own Homes without the King's leave And you have now been longer absent and have refused to come to them for what cause they know not Then said the King I now plainly see that my People and the Commons design to oppose me with Force and are about to make an Insurrection against me And if I be so infested I think the best course I can take will be to _____ my Cousin the King of France and ask his Advice and pray in aid of him against those that way-lay me and rather to submit my self to him than be foil'd by my own Subjects To which they reply'd That Counsel is not for your good but will inevitably tend to your ruin for the King of France is your capital Enemy and the greatest Adversary that your Kingdom has and if he should set his foot within your Kingdom he would rather endeavour to prey upon you and invade your Realm and to depose you from your Royal Dignity than afford you any Assistance if which God forbid you should stand in need of his help Call to mind therefore how your Grand-father King Edward III and your Father Prince Edward for him fought indefatigably in Sweat and Sorrow all their days and went through innumerable Hardships of Cold and Heat to acquire the Kingdom of France which by hereditary Right appertain'd to Them and does now to You by Succession after them Remember likewise how innumerable Lords and Commons of both Realms and Kings and Gentlemen of other Kingdoms and People innumerable perished or hazarded perishing in that War and that the Commons of this Realm pour'd out Goods of inestimable value and innumerable Sums of Money for the carrying on of that same War and which is more to be lamented they have now in your days undergone such heavy Taxes towards the maintaining of your Wars that they are reduced to such incredible Poverty that they cannot so much as pay their Rents for their Farms nor aid the King nor afford themselves Necessaries and the King himself is impoverish'd and the Lords become uneasy and all the People faint for a King cannot become poor that has a rich People nor can he be rich whose People are poor And all these Mischiefs redound not to the King only but also to all and singular the Peers of the Realm in proportion And all these Mischiefs happen by means of the King 's Evil Ministers who have hitherto misgovern'd both the King and Kingdom and if some course be not taken the Kingdom of England will
be miserably diminish'd sooner than we are aware But there remains yet another part of our Message which we have to impart to you on the behalf of your People They find in an antient Statute and it has been done in fact not long ago That if the King through any Evil Counsel or foolish Contumacy or out of Scorn or some singular petulant Will of his own or by any other irregular Means shall alienate himself from his People and shall refuse to be govern'd and guided by the Laws of the Realm and the Statutes and laudable Ordinances thereof together with the wholsom Advice of the Lords and great Men of his Realm but persisting head-strong in his own hare-brain'd Counsels shall petulantly prosecute his own singular humour That then it shall be lawful for them with the common assent and consent of the People of the Realm to depose that same King from his Regal Throne and to set up some other of the Royal Blood in his room H. Knight Coll. 2681. No Man can imagine that the Lords and Commons in Parliament would have sent the King such a Message and have quoted to him an old Statute for deposing Kings that would not govern according to Law if the People of England had then apprehended that an Obedience without reserve was due to the King or if there had not been such a Statute in being And though the Record of that Excellent Law be lost as the Records of almost all our Antient Laws are yet is the Testimony of so credible an Historian who lived when these things were transacted sufficient to inform us that such a Law was then known and in being and consequently that the Terms of English Allegiance according to the Constitution of our Government are different from what some Modern Authors would persuade us they are This Difference betwixt the said King and his Parliament ended amicably betwixt them in the punishment of many Evil Counsellors by whom the King had been influenced to commit many Irregularities in Government But the Discontents of the People grew higher by his After-management of Affairs and ended in the Deposition of that King and setting up of another who was not the next Heir in Lineal Succession The Articles against King Richard the Second may be read at large in H. Knighton Collect. 2746 2747 c. and are yet extant upon Record An Abridgment of them is in Cotton's Records pag. 386 387 388. out of whom I observe these few there being in all Thirty three The First was His wasting and bestowing the Lands of the Crown upon unworthy Persons and overcharging the Commons with Exactions And that whereas certain Lords Spiritual and Temporal were assign'd in Parliament to intend the Government of the Kingdom the King by a Conventicle of his own Accomplices endeavoured to impeach them of High-Treason Another was For that the King by undue means procured divers Justices to speak against the Law to the destruction of the Duke of Glocester and the Earls of Arundel and Warwick at Shrewsbury Another For that the King against his own Promise and Pardon at a solemn Procession apprehended the Duke of Glocester and sent him to Calice there to be choaked and murthered beheading the Earl of Arundel and banishing the Earl of Warwick and the Lord Cobham Another For that the King's Retinue and a Rout gathered by him out of Cheshire committed divers Murders Rapes and other Felonies and refused to pay for their Victuals Another For that the Crown of England being freed from the Pope and all other Foreign Power the King notwithstanding procured the Pope's Excommunication on such as should break the Ordinances of the last Parliament in derogation of the Crown Statutes and Laws of the Realm Another That he made Men Sheriffs who were not named to him by the Great Officers the Justices and others of his Council and who were unfit contrary to the Laws of the Realm and in manifest breach of his Oath Another For that he did not repay to his Subjects the Debts that he had borrowed of them Another For that the King refused to execute the Laws saying That the Laws were in his Mouth and Breast and that himself alone could make and alter the Laws Another For causing Sheriffs to continue in Office above a Year contrary to the tenor of a Statute-Law thereby incurring notorious Perjury Another For that the said King procured Knights of the Shires to be returned to serve his own Will Another For that many Justices for their good Counsel given to the King were with evil Countenance and Threats rewarded Another For that the King passing into Ireland had carried with him without the Consent of the Estates of the Realm the Treasure Reliques and other Jewels of the Realm which were used safely to be kept in the King 's own Coffers from all hazard And for that the said King cancelled and razed sundry Records Another For that the said King appear'd by his Letters to the Pope to Foreign Princes and to his Subjects so variable so dissembling and so unfaithful and inconstant that no Man could trust him that knew him insomuch that he was a Scandal both to himself and the Kingdom Another That the King would commonly say amongst the Nobles that all Subjects Lives Lands and Goods were in his hands without any forfeiture which is altogether contrary to the Laws and Vsages of the Realm Another For that he suffered his Subjects to be condemned by Martial-Law contrary to his Oath and the Laws of the Realm Another For that whereas the Subjects of England are sufficiently bound to the King by their Allegiance yet the said King compell'd them to take new Oaths These Articles with some others not altogether of so general a concern being considered and the King himself confessing his Defects the same seemed sufficient to the whole Estates for the King's Deposition and he was depos'd accordingly The Substance and Drift of all is That our Kings were antiently liable to and might lawfully be deposed for Oppression and Tyranny for Insufficiency to govern c. in and by the great Council of the Nation without any breach of the old Oath of Fealty because to say nothing of the nature of our Constitution express and positive Laws warranted such Proceedings And therefore the Frame of our Government being the same still and the Terms of our Allegiance being the same now that they were then without any new Obligations superinduced by the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy a King of England may legally at this day for sufficient cause be deposed by the Lords and Commons assembled in a Great Council of the Kingdom without any breach of the present Oaths of Supremacy or Allegiance Quod erat demonstrandum MANTISSA WHen Stephen was King of England whom the People had chosen rather than submit to Mawd tho the Great Men of the Realm had sworn Fealty to her in her Father's life-time Henry Duke of Anjou Son of the said Mawd afterwards King Henry the Second invaded the Kingdom An. Dom. 1153 which was towards the latter-end of King Stephen's Reign and Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury endeavoured to mediate a Peace betwixt them speaking frequently with the King in private and sending many Messages to the Duke and Henry Bishop of Winchester took pains likewise to make them Friends Factum est autem ut mense Novembris in fine mensis EX PRAECEPTO REGIS ET DUCIS Collect. pag. 1374 1375. convenirent apud Wintoniam Praesules Principes Regni ut ipsi jam initae paci praeberent assensum unanimiter juramenti Sacramento confirmarent i.e. It came to pass that in the Month of November towards the latter end of the Month at the summons of the King and of the Duke the Prelats and Great Men of the Kingdom were assembled at Winchester that they also might assent to the Peace that was concluded and unanimously swear to observe it In that Parliament the Duke was declared King Stephen's adopted Son and Heir of the Kingdom and the King to retain the Government during his Life I observe only upon this Authority That there being a Controversy betwixt the King and the Duke which could no otherwise be determined and settled but in a Parliament the Summons of this Parliament were issued in the Names of both Parties concerned Quisquis habet aures ad audiendum audiat FINIS
him 't is absolutely necessary without 't is impossible to salve I perceive no Gentleman here has confidence to deny the Loyalty of the Fact or excuse the black Crimes that appear before us Why do they not answer the Evidence that is now come in If it be false contradict it if true what is the Reason of this Debate Is not the King alive Is not all Loyalty due to him Love hates a Competitor much more a Crown A Speech spoke by the same Worthy Member upon the Irish Informations given in at the Bar in Writing THIS is not so much a Discovery as a Confirmation of the Discovery of the Plot although some inconsiderate Men are apt to give Credit to the dying Words of some Men. This agrees exactly with Oates his first Discovery It adds to the strength of what Coleman's Letters imported but so deplorable is our Condition we are in danger we see the Knife is even at our Throats but none seeks to take it out of our Enemies hand You have Witnesses against a Great Person one before another now he is a Lord a Privy Counsellor and sits in Council still My Lord of Tyrone he is in the Gate-House but not secured There is one Informant tells you they received Incouragement from the D. of Y. and that he promised them Assistance I call not the Truth of this in question but we see they make use of these great Names so that even in this Kings time we are not secure a day without the Bill They have Reason to believe that a Popish Successor will assist them in their Rebellion Now we see why our Ministers made a Peace We thought our Security to be in the French Kings being involved in a War Now I say the reason of the Nimeguen Plenipotentiaries making a Peace is seen to have the French King be at Liberty to send Men into Ireland Here you have a full Confirmation of this Evidence We see our danger both at home and abroad and what posture we are in if any means be left for our Security Let these Depositions be Printed that the Country may see our Danger if we will not Impeach the Earl of Tyrone presently if he should write into Ireland I am afraid he will find too much Favour there consider the Case of this Lord the Privy Councellor he is a great Man and a Lawyer if I thought we could not reach him we would not go about to Impeach him Agree with the Lords in their Vote and desire them to agree with you that the Papists may not draw their Incouragement from a Popish Successor Another Speech by a Person of Honour Mr. Speaker I Have not hitherto troubled you and am so sensible of my own inabilities in comparison of so many wiser and abler Men in this House that 't is with great unwillingness I rise up to speak but when I hear the Honour and Justice of this House call'd in question as it was by that Honourable Member which spake last I cannot I confess bear it with patience but must as I think it my Duty endeavour to vindicate the Justice of the House for I must profess Sir that in my Judgment this Bill is so far from an unjust thing that it is rather a Favour to him since if he were proceeded against by Impeachment for the Crimes he is accused of by several Witnesses he might perhaps forfeit more than a Crown which for our Safeties only we go about to exclude him from enjoying And since it is undoubtedly in the Power of Parliaments to dispose of such Successions it seems very hard with me to tax this House with Unjustice for so doing upon so great reason and necessity as now requires it I will not Sir at all deny the many great Services mentioned by that Honourable Member the Duke has done the Nation at Sea nor will I say any thing at all in Derogation of any one of them but yet I do not think he fought for us when he was asleep There are several things Sir wherein this Nation hath been betrayed I will not say any of them directly upon him but when I think of some of them I am very much startled and know not well what to believe for when I consider that in the Fire of London there were several outlandish Men taken in the very act of Firing a House and being delivered to the Guard were presently set at Liberty by the Officer that commanded it and that such a Man should ever since not only continue but increase in the Duke's Favour to the greatest Degree imaginable I must confess I do not like it and I think it looks very ill When I also think of the general Design which plainly appears to have been carried on all along to destroy the People and to weaken the Nation as much as possible as apapears by the Treachery was used at Chatham and the French's standing still while the Dutch and we cut one anothers Throats this also in my Judgment is very ill nor doth it appear better that it was taken ill that the D. of Monmouth when he was sent into Scotland did not cut those poor miserable Peoples Throats But that Prince had too much humanity and discretion than to do it But I do not particularly charge any Person with these There are many things Sir spoken of by the witnesses you have heard relating to the Duke as also several things in the Letters you have heard read I shall not repeat any of them I will only tell you a Passage comes into my mind and I do not tell it for the sake of the Story but that it appears to me by it that the Duke was either somewhat concerned in the Plot or at least to hinder the discovery of it for the D. speaking publickly to all that were round him of one Le Faire that was accused by Mr. Bedloe to have been one of Sir E. B. Godfreys Murderers and one of the Queens servants he said that could not be because there was no such Man as Le Faire about the Queen but yet it so fell out they say that in some little time after there was a Bond found under this Man 's own hand and he proved to be one of the Queens Servants and run away upon this Business Now Sir if this were so 't is impossible the other should be true and if a Prince or any Man speaks an untruth it is a fault so hateful to me that I must confess I know not what to call it nor what Name to give it It is the Devil I shall trouble you Sir with one thing more which comes into my mind and if true is as bad as any thing can be There was Sir a French Protestant came o're to the King to make Proposals for the Interest of the Protestant Religion Here a Person of Honour standing up said He never heard a Prince so Reflected upon in his life Upon which the House cried Go on Go on The