Kings to an usurpation of Power over the Laws and to a violation of established and enacted Rules It would draw this Discourse to a length beyond what is intended should I mention the several Laws against Papists as well as against Dissenters that are suspended stopt disabled and dispensed with in the two fore-mentioned Royal Papers and it would be an extending it much more should I make the several Reflections that the matter is capable of and which a person of a very ordinary understanding cannot be greatly to seek for I shall therefore only take notice of two â—r three Efforts which occur there of this â—oyal prerogative and Absolute power which â—s they are very bold and ample exertions â—f them for the first time so should the â—ext exercises of them be proportionable 〈…〉 ere will be nothing left us of the Protestant â—eligion or of English Liberties and we must â—e contented to be Papists and Slaves or else 〈◊〉 stand adjudged to Tyburn and Smithfield One is the suspending the Laws which en 〈…〉 in the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy â—nd the prohibiting that these Oaths be at any 〈…〉 me hereafter required to be taken by which â—â—ngle Exercise of Royal prerogative and Absolute â—ower the two Kingdoms are not only aâ—ain subjected to a forraign Iurisdiction the miseries whereof they groaned under for several Ages but as the King is hereby deprived of the greatest security he had from â—is Subjects both to himself and the Government â—o the Crown is robb'd of one of its chiefest â—ewels namely an Authority over all the Subâ—ects which was thought so essential to Soveâ—aignty Royal Dignity that it was annexed to the Imperial Crown of England adjudged inherent in the Monarch before the Reformed Religion came to be received established And it concerns their Royal Highnesses of Orange to whom the Right of succeeding to the Crownâ— of Great Brittain unquestionably belongs to consider whether his Majesty may not by the same Authority whereby he alienates and gives away so considerable and inherent a Branch of the Royal Iurisdiction transferr the Succession it self and dispose the Inheritance of the Crown to whom he pleaseth Nor will they about him who thrust the last King out of the Throne to make room for his present Majesty much scruple to put a Protestant Successor by it if they can find another Papist as Bigotted as this to advance unto it However were they on the Throne to morrow here is both a Forraign Iurisdiction brought in and set up to Rivall and controll theirs and they are deprived of all means of being secured of the Loyalty and Fealty of a great number of their Subjects Nor will His Majesties certain knowledg and long experience whereof he boasts in the Scots Proclamation that the Catholicks as it is their principle to be good Christians so it is to be dutiful Subjects be enough for their Royal Highnesses to rely upon their Religion obliging them to the contrary towards Princes whom the Church of Rome hath adjudged to be Hereticks A second Instance wherein this pretended Royal Prerogative is exercised paramount to all Laws and which nothing but a claim of Absolute Power in his Majesty can support and an acknowledgment of it by the Subjâ—stâ— make them approve the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and the Proclamation for Toleration is the stopping disabling and suspending the Statutes whereby the Tests were enacted and thereby letting the Papists in to all Benefices Offices and Places of Trust whether Civil Military or Ecclesiastick I do not speak of Suspending the Execution of those Laws whereby the being Priests or taking Orders in the Church of Rome or the being Reconciled to that Church or the Papists meeting to celebrate Mass were in one degree or another made punishable tho the Kings dispensing with them by a challenged claim in the Crown be altogether illegal for as diverss of these Laws were never approved by many Protestants so nothing would have justified the making of them but the many Treasons and Conspiracies that they were from time to time found guilty of against the State. And as the Papists of all men have the least cause to complain of the injustice rigour and severity of them considering the many Laws more cruel and sanguinary that are in Force in most Popish Countries against Protestants and these enacted and executed meerly for their Opinions and Practices in the matters of God without their being chargeable with crimes and offences against the Civil Government under which they live so were it necessary from principles of Religion and Policy to relieve the Roman Catholicks from the forementioned Laws yet it ought not to be done but by the Legislative Authority of the Kingdoms and â—or the King to assume a power of doing it in the vertue of a pretended prerogative is both a high Usurpation over the Laws and a Violation of of his Coronation Oath Nor is it any commendation either of the humanity of the Papists or of the meekness and Truth of their Religion that while they elsewhere treat those who differ from them in Faith and Worship with that Barbarity they should so clamorously inveigh against the severities which in some Reformed States they are liable unto and which their Treasons gave the rise and provocation unto at first and have been at all times the motives to the infliction of But they alone would have the allowance to be cruel wherein they act consonantly to their own Tenets and I wish that some provision might be made for the future for the security of our Religion and our safety in the profession of it without the doing any thing that may unbecome the merciful principles of Christianity or be unsutable to the meek and generous temper of the English Nation and that the property of being Sanguinary may be left to the Church of Rome as its peculiar Priviledg and Glory and as a more distinguisting Character than all the other Marks which she pretends unto That which I am speaking of is the suspending the Execution of those Laws by which the Government was secured of the Fidelity of its Subjecte and by which they in whom it could not confide were meerly shut out from places of power and trust and were made liable to very small damages themselves and only hindred from getting into a condition of doing mischief to us All Governments have a Right to use means for their own preservation provided they be not such as are inconsistent with the Ends of Government and repugnant to the will and pleasure of the Supream Soveraign of mankind and it is in the power of every Legislative Assembly to declare who of the Community shall be capable or incapable of publick Imploys and of possessing Offices upon which the Peace Welfare and Security of the whole Politick Body does depend Without this n 〈…〉 Government could subsist nor the People b 〈…〉 in safety under it but the Constitution woul 〈…〉 be
in constant danger of being subvertedâ— and the Priviledges Liberties and Religion of the Subjects laid open to be overthrown And should such a power in Legislators be upon weak suspitions and il 〈…〉 grounded jealousies carried at any timâ— too far and some prove to be debarreâ— from Trusts whose being imployed woulâ— import no hazard yet the worst of that would be only a disrepect shewn to individual persons who might deserve more favour and esteem but could be of no prejudice to the Society there being alway's 〈◊〉 sufficient number of others fit for the discharge of all Offices in whom an entire confidence may be reposed And 't is remarkable that the States General of the Uniteâ— Provinces who afford the greatest Liberty to all Religions that any known State iâ— Europe giveth yet they suffer no Papists to come into places of Authority and Iudicature nor to bear any Office in the Republick thaâ— may either put them into a condition oâ— lay them under a temptation of attempting any thing to the prejudice of Religion oâ— for the betraying the Liberty of the Provinces And as 't is lawful for any Government to preclude all such persons from publick Trusts of whose enmity and ill will to the Establishment in Church or State they have either a moral certainty or just grounds of suspition so 't is no less lawful to provide Tests for their discovery and detection thaâ— they may not be able to mask and vizoâ— themselves in order to getting into Offices and thereupon of promoting and accomplishing their mischievous and malicious intentions Nor is it possible in such a case but that the Tests they are to be tried by must relate to some of those principles by which they are most eminently distinguished from them of the National Settlement and in reference whereunto they think it most piacular to dissemble their Opinion Nor have the Papists cause to be offended that the Renouncing the Belief of Transubstantiaâ—â—on should be required as the distinguishing â—ark whereby upon their refusal they may â—e discerned when all the penalty upon their â—eing known is only to be excluded from a â—â—are in the Legislation and not to be admitted â—o Employments of Trust and profit seeing it â—ath been and still is their custome to require â—he belief of the Corporal presence in the Sacraâ—ent as that upon the not acknowledgment whereof we are to be accounted Hereticks â—nd to stand condemned to be burnt which is â—omewhat worse than the not being allowed â—o sit in the two Houses of Parliament or â—o be shut out from a Civil or Military â—ffice Neither are they required to Declare â—uch less to Swear that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is false or that there is no 〈…〉 ch thing as Transubstantiation as is affirmed 〈…〉 n a scurrilous Paper written against the Loyalty of the Church of England but all â—hat is enjoined in the Test Acts is that 〈◊〉 A. B. do declare that I do believe that there 〈◊〉 not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament 〈◊〉 the Lords Supper or in the Elements of Bread â—nd Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by â—ny Person whatsoever Tho the Parliament â—as willing to use all the care they could for â—he discovering Papists that the provision for â—ur security unto which those Acts were deâ—igned might be the more effectual yet â—hey were not so void of understanding as â—o prescribe a Method for it which would â—ave exposed them to the world for their â—olly 'T is much different to say swear or â—eclare that I do believe there is not any Transubâ—â—antiation and the saying or declaring that â—here is not a Transubstantiation the former â—eing only expressive of what my sentiment or opinion is and not at all affecting the Doctrine it self to make or unmake it other â—han what it is independently upon my judgment of it whereas the latter does primaâ—ily Affect the Object and the determination of its existence to such a mode as I conceive â—t and there are a thousand things which I can say that I do not believe but I dare not say that they are not Now as 't is the dispensing with these Laws that argues the Kings assuming an Absolute Power so the Addressing by way of thanks for the Declaration wherein this Power is exerted is no less than an owning and acknowledging of it and that it rightfully belongs to him There is a third thing which shame or fear would not suffer them to put into the Declaration for liberty of Conscience in England but which they have had the impudence to insert into the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland which as it carries Absolute Power written in forehead of it so it is such an unpresidented exercise of Despoticalness as hardly any of the Oriental Tyrants or even the French Leviathan would have ventured upon For having stop't disabled and suspended all Laws enjoining any Oaths whereby our Religion was secured and the preservation of it to us and our posterity was provided for he imposeth a new Oath upon his Scots Subjects whereby they are to be bound to defend and mantain Him his Heirs and Lawful Successors in the Exercise of their Absolute Power and Authority against all deadly The imposing an Oath upon Subjects hath been always look't upon as the highest Act of legislative Authority in that it affects their Consciences and requires the approbation or disapprobation of their Minds and Judgments in reference to whatsoever it is enjoined for whereas a Law that affects only mens Estates may be submitted unto tho in the mean time they think that which is exacted of them to be unreasonable and unjust And as it concerns both the wisdom and justice of Law-givers to be very tender in Ordaining Oaths that are to be taken by Subjects and that not only from a care that they may not prostitute the name of God to prophanation when the matter about which they are imposed is either light and trival or dubious and uncertain but because it is an exercise of Jurisdiction over the Souls of men which is more than if it were only exercised over their Goods Bodies and Priviledges so never any of our Kings pretended to a Right of enjoining and requiring an Oath that was not first Enacted and specified in some Law and it would have been heretofore accounted a good plea for refusing such or such an Oath to say there was no Statute that had required it It was one of the Articles of high Treason and the most material charged upon the Earl of Strafford that being Lord Deputy of Ireland he required an Oath of the Scotts who inhabited there which no Law had ordained or prescribed which may make those Councellors who have advised the King to impose this new Oath as well as all others that shal require it to be taken upon his Majesties bare Authority to be a little apprehensive whether it may not at some time rise in judgment against them and prove a
hath hitherto passed for an undoubted Maxim that eorum est tollere quorum est condere they can only abrogate Laws who have Power and Authority to make them and we have heretofore been made believe that the Legislative power was not in the King alone but that the two Houses of Parliament had at least a share in it whereas here by the disabling and suspending Laws for ever the whole legislative Power is challenged to be vested in the King and at one dash the Government of England is subverted and changed Tho it hath been much disputed whether the King had a liberty of Refusing to Assent to Bills relating to the benefit of the publick that had passed the two Houses and if there be any sense in those words of the Coronation Oath of his being bound to Govern according to the Laws quas vulgus Elegerit he had not yet none till now that his Majesty doth it had the impudence to affirm that he might abrogate Laws without the concurrence and assent of the Lords and Commons For to say that Oaths enjoined by Laws to be required to be taken shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken is a plain Cancelling and repealing of these Laws or nothing of this World ever was or is nor can the wisdom of the Nation in Parliament assembled find words more emphatical to declare their Abrogation without saying so which at this time it was necessary to forbear for fear of allarming the Kingdom too far before his Majesty be sufficiently provided against it For admitting them to continue still in being and force tho the King may promise for the nonexecution of them during his own time which is even a pretty bold undertaking yet he cannot assure us that the Oaths shall not be required to be taken at any time hereafter unless he have provided for an eternal Line of popish Successors which God will not be so unmerciful as to plague us with or have gotten a lease of a longer life than Methusalah's which is much more than the full Century of years wished him in a late Dedication by one that stiles himself an Irishman a thing he might have foreborn telling us because the Size of his understanding fully declares it However here is such a stroke and exercise of Absolute Power as dissolves the Government and brings us all into a State of Nature by discharging us from the ties which by vertue of fundamental Stipulations and Statute Laws we formerly lay under forasmuch as we know no King but a King by Law nor no Power he has but a legal Power Which thro disclaiming by a challenge that the whole legislative Authority does reside in himself he hath thrown the Gantles to three Kingdoms and provokes them to a trial whether he be ablest to maintain his Absoluteness or they to justify their being a free People And by virtu ' of the same Royal will and pleasure that he annulls which he calls Suspending the Laws enjoining the Tests and the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy and commands that none of these Oaths and Declarations shall at any time hereafter be required to be taken he may in some following Royal Papers give us whitehall or Hampton Court Edicts conformable to those at Versailles which at all times hereafter we shall be bound to submitt unto and stand obliged to be Ruled by instead of the Common Law and Statutâ— Book Nor is the taking upon him to stamp us new Laws exclusively of Parliamentary concurrence in the virtu ' of his Royal prerogative any thing more uncouth ' in it self or more dissagreeable to the Rules of the Constitution and what we have been constantly accustomed unto than the cassing disabling and abrogating so many old ones which that absolute out of date as well as ill favoured thing upon Monarchs called a Parliament had a share in the Enacting of I will not say that our Addressers were conscious that the getting an Absolute Power in his Majesty to be owned and acknowledged was one of the Ends for which the late Declaration was calculated and emitted but I think I have sufficiently demonstrated both that such a power it issueth and flows from and that such a power is plainly exercised in it Which whether there coming now to be told and made acquainted with it may make them repent what they have done or at least prevent their being accessory to the support of this Power in other mischievous effects that are to be dreaded from it I must leave to time to make the discovery it being impossible to foretel what a People fallen into a phrenzie may do in their paroxism's of distraction and madness Nor was the Seruing himself into the possession of an Absolute power and the getting it to be owned by at least a part of the people the only Motive to the publishing the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland but a second inducement thaâ— sway'd unto it was the undermining an subverting the Protestant Religion and the opening a door for the introduction and establâ—â—hment of Popery Nor was it from any compassion to Dissenters that these two Royaâ— Papers were emitted but from his Majestieâ— tender love to Papists to whom as there arise many advantages for the present so the whole Benefit will be found to redound to them in the issue We are told a◠〈…〉 ave already mentioned that the King is â—esolved to convert England or to die a Martyr â—nd we may be sure that if he did not think â—he suspending the penal Laws and the disâ—ensing with requiring of the Tests and the â—ranting Liberty and Toleration to be means admirably adapted thereunto he would not have acted so inconsistently with himself nor in that opposition to his own designes as to have disabled these Laws and vouch sav'd the Freedom that results thereupon Especially when we are told by the Leige Iesuite that the King being sensible of his growing old finds himself thereby obliged â—o make the greater hast and to take the larger steps lest thro not living long enough to effect what he intends he should not only lose the glory of converting three Kingdoms but should leave the Papists in a worse condition than he found them His Highness the Prince of Orange very justly concludes this â—o be the thing aim'd at by the present Indulgence and therefore being desired to approve the Suspension of the Test Acts and to cooperate with his Majesty for the obtaining their being Repealed was pleased to Answer â—hat while he was as well as prosesseth himself a Protestant he would not Act so unworthily as â—o betray the Protestant Religion which he necessarily must if he should do as he was desired Her Royal Highness the Princess of Orange has likewise the same apprehension of the tendency of the Toleration and Indulgence and therefore was pleased to say to some Scotts Ministers that did themselves the honor
several ports of England buâ— to the hindring the execution whereof somâ— unexpected and not foreseen accidents havâ— interposed And it is in subserviency not to be disquieted at home while he is carrying on this holy war abroad that the Declaratioâ— for liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland are granted and published 'T is well enough known how that after the French King had among many other severities exercised against Protestants made them uncapable of Employments and commands yet to avoid the consequences that might have ensued thereupon while he was engaged in war against the Emperor the King of Spain and the States of Holland and to have the aid ' of his Reformed Subjects he not only intermitted and abated in many other rigours towards them but in Anno 1674. restored them to a capacity of being employed and preferred And that this did not flow from any compassion tendernes or good will towards them his carriage since the issue of that war and the miserable condition he hath reduced them unto do's sufficiently testify and declare Nor can we forget how that the late King after a rigorous execution of the penal Laws for several years against Dissenters yet being to enter into an unjust â—ar against the united Provinces Anno 1672. â—ot only forbore all proceedings of that kind â—ut published a Declaration for suspending the â—xecution of all those Laws and for the alâ—owing them liberty of Assembling to worâ—hip God in their separate meetings withâ—ut being hindred or disturbed What â—rinciple that proceeded from and to what â—nd it was calculated appeared in his behaâ—iour to them afterwards when neither the â—anger the Nation was in from the Papists â—or the application of several Parliaments â—ould prevail for lenity towards them much less for a legal Repeal of those impoâ—itick and unreasonable Statutes Nor does â—he present Indulgence flow from any kindness to Fanaticks but it is only an artifice to stiffe their discontents and to procure their assistance for the destroying of a Forraign Protestant State. And it may not be unworthy of observation that as the Declaration of Indulgenct Anno 1672. bore date much about the same time with the Declaration of war against the Dutch so at the very season that his present Majesty emitted his Declaration for liberty of Conscience there were Commissions of Reprisal prepared and ready to be grantrd to the English East India Company against the Hollanders but which were suppressed upon the Courts finding that they whom the suspending the Execution of so many Laws and the granting such liberties Rights and immunities to the Papists had disgusted and provoked were far more numerous and their resentments more to be apprehended than they were whose murmurings and discontents they had silenced and allay'd by the liberty that was granted Now as it will be at this juncture when the Protestant Interest is so low in the World and the Reformed Religion in so great danger of being destroyed a most wicked as well as an imprudent Act to contribute help and aid to the subjugating a people that are the chief Protectors of the protestant Religion that are left and almost the only Asserters of the Rights and liberties of Mankind so it may fill the Addressers with confusion and shame that they should have not only justified an Act of his Majestys that is plainly designed to such a mischievous End but that they should by the promises and vows that they have made him have emboldned his Majesty to continue his purposes and Resolutions of a war against the Dutch. Which as it must be funestous and fatal to the Protestant Cause in case he should prosper and succeed so howsoever it should issue yet the Addressers who have done what in them lyes to give encouragement unto it will be held betrayers of the Protestant Religion both abroad and at home and judged guilty of all the blood of those of the same Faith with them that shall be shed in this Quarrel That Liberty ought to be allowed to men in matters of Religion is no Plea whereby the Kings giving it in an illegal and Arbitrary manner can be maintained and justified Since ever I was capable of Exercising any distinct and coherent Acts of Reason I have been alway's of that Mind that none ought to be persecuted for their Consciences towards God in matters of Faith and Worship Nor is it one of those things that lye under the power of the Soveraign and Legislative Authority to grant or not to grant but it is a Right setled upon mankind antecedent to all Civil Constitutions and Humane Laws having its foundation in the Law of Nature which no Prince or State can legitimately violate and infringe The Magistrate as a Civil Officer can pretend or claim no power over a people but what he either derives from the Divine Charter wherein God the Supream Instituter of Magistracy has chalk't out the duty of Rulers in general or what the people upon the first and original Stipulation are supposed to have given him in order to the protection peace and prosperity of the Society But as it does no where appear that God hath given any such power to Governors seeing all the Revelations in the Scripture as well as all the Dictates of Nature speak a contrary language so neither can the People upon their chusing such a one to be their Ruler be imagined to transferr and vest such a power in him for as much as they cannot divest themselves of a power no more than of a Right of believing things as they arrive with a credibility to their several and respective Understandings As it is in no mans power to believe as he will but only as he sees cause so it is the most irrational imagination in the world to think they should transferr a Right to him whom they have chosen to Govern them of punishing them for what it is not in their power to help Nor can any thing be plainer than that God has reserved the Empire over Conscience to himself and that he hath circumscribed the power of all humane Governore to things of a civil and inferior nature And had God convey'd a Right unto Magistrates of commanding men to be of this or that Religion and that because they are so and will have others to be of their mind it would follow that the People may conform to whatsoever they require tho by all the lights of sense Reason and Revelation they are convinced of the falsehood of it seeing whatsoever the Soveraign rightfully Commands the Subjects may lawfully obey But tho the persecuting people for matters of meer Religion be repugnant to the light of Nature inconsistent with the fundamental Maximes of Reason directly contrary to the temper and genious as well as to the Rules of the Gospel and not only against the safety and interest of Civil Societies but of a tendency to fill them with confusion and to arm Subjects
to the cutting of one anothers throats yet Governors may both deny Liberty to those whose principles oblige them to destroy those that are not of their mind and may in some measure Regulate the Liberty which they vouch save to others whose opinions tho they do not think dangerous to the peace of the Community yet thro judging them erroneous and false they conceive them dangerous to the Soules of men As there is a vast difference betwixt Tolerating a Religion and approving the Religion that is Tolerated so what a Government doth not approve but barely permitts and suffers may 〈◊〉 brought under Restrictions as to time plac 〈…〉 and number of those professing it that sha 〈…〉 assemble in one meeting which it wer 〈…〉 an undecency to extend to those of th 〈…〉 justified and established way Now wha 〈…〉 soever Restrictions or Regulations are E 〈…〉 acted and ordained by the Legislative Aâ—thority in reference to Religions or Religio 〈…〉 Assemblies they are not to be stop't disable 〈…〉 or suspended but by the same Authority th 〈…〉 Enacted and ordained them The King say 〈◊〉 very truely that Conscience ought not to 〈◊〉 constrained nor people forced in matters of me 〈…〉 Religion but it does not from thence follo 〈…〉 unless by the Logick of Whitehal th 〈…〉 without the concurrence of a Parliamen 〈…〉 he should suspend and dispense with the Law 〈…〉 and by a pretended preroragtive relieve an 〈…〉 from what they are obnoxious unto by th 〈…〉 Statutes of the Realm His saying that th 〈…〉 forcing people in matters of Religio 〈…〉 spoils Trade depopulates Countries discour 〈…〉 geth Strangers and answers not the End 〈◊〉 beinging all to an Uniformity for which it 〈◊〉 employ'd would do well in a Speech to th 〈…〉 Houses of Parliament to perswade them t 〈…〉 Repeal some certain Laws or might do we 〈…〉 to determine his Majesty to assent to suc 〈…〉 Bills as a Parliament may prepare and offe 〈…〉 for relieving persons in matters of Co 〈…〉 science But does not serve for what it 〈◊〉 alledged nor can it warrant his suspending th 〈…〉 Laws by his single Authority And by th 〈…〉 way I know when these very Argument 〈…〉 were not only despised by His Majesty an 〈…〉 ridiculed by those who took their Cue fro 〈…〉 Court and had wit to do it as by the prâ—sent Bishop of Oxford in a very ill natur 〈…〉 Book called Ecclesiastical Polity but whe 〈…〉 the daring to have mentioned them woul 〈…〉 have provok'd the then Duke of York's i 〈…〉 dignation and have exposed the party th 〈…〉 did it to discountenance and disgrace T 〈…〉 question is not what is convenient to 〈◊〉 done in some measure and degree and 〈◊〉 reference to those whose Religion does n 〈…〉 oblige them to destroy all that differ fro 〈…〉 â—om when they have opportunity for it 〈…〉 t the point in debate is who hath the leâ—â—l power of doing it and of fixing its bounds â—â—d limits It was never pretended that the 〈…〉 ing ought to be shut out from a share in spending and Repealing Laws but that the â—â—le Right of doing it belongs to him is â—hat cannot be allowed without changing 〈…〉 e Constitution and placing the whole Le 〈…〉 slative Authority in His Majesty And as it is 〈◊〉 Usurpation in the King to challenge it and 〈◊〉 treachery in English Subjects to acknowledg 〈…〉 so the inconveniences that this or that â—arty are in the mean time exposed unto 〈…〉 ro the Laws remaining in force are raâ—â—er to be endured than that a power of 〈…〉 ving case and relief farther than by con 〈…〉 vance should be confessed to reside in â—â—y one in whom the Laws of the Comâ—unity have not placed it 'T is better to â—â—dergo hardships under the Execution of â—â—just Laws than be released from our â—roubles by a power Usurped over all Laws â—or by the one the measures of Government 〈◊〉 well as the Rights and Priviledges of a Na 〈…〉 on are destroy'd whereas by the other â—â—ly a part of the people are afflicted and â—â—duly dealt with While we are Govern'd 〈◊〉 Laws tho several of them may be in 〈…〉 st and inconvenient yet we are under a â—â—curity as to all other things which those â—aws have not made liable but when we â—ll under an illimited prerogative and Abso 〈…〉 e Power we have no longer a Title 〈◊〉 or a hedg about any thing but all lies â—â—en to the lust and pleasure of him in â—hom we have owned that power to be 〈…〉 ated A Liberty is what Dissenters have 〈◊〉 Right to Claim and which the Legislative â—uthority is bound by the Rules of Justice 〈…〉 d Duty as well as by Principles of Wisdom 〈…〉 d Discretion to grant And I am sorry 〈…〉 at while they stood so fair to obtain it 〈◊〉 a Legal and Parliamentary way any of 〈…〉 em by acknowledging a Right in another 〈◊〉 give it and that in a manner so subver 〈…〉 e of the Authority of Parliaments should 〈…〉 ve rendred themselves unworthy to receive it from them to whom the power of bestowing it does belong Not but that a Toleration will be alway's due to their Principles but I know not whether the particular men of those Principles who have by their Addresses betray'd the Kingdom may not come to be judged to have forfeited all share in it for their crime committed against the Constitution and the whole Politick Society Nor is there any thing more just and equal than that they who surrender and give away the Rights both of Legislators and Subjects should lose all grace and favour from the former and all portion among the latter And how much soever some Protestant Dissenters may please themselves with the Liberty that at present they enjoy in the vertue of the two Royal Papers yet this may serve to moderate them in their transports of gladness that they have no solid Security for the continuance of it For should a Parliament null and make voide the Declaration for Liberty and impeath the judges for declaring a power vested in the King to suspend so many Laws and for forbearing upon the Kings Mandat to execute them the freedom that the Dissenters possess would immediately vanish and have much the same destiny that the Liberty had which was granted unto them by the Declaration of Indulgence anno 1672. Or should the Parliament be willing to grant ease and Indulgence to all Protestants by a Bill prepared for Repealing of all the Laws formerly made against them and should only be desirous to preserve in force the Laws relating to the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Statutes which enjoin the Tests of whose Execution we never more wanted the benefit in order to our preservation from Popery and which an English Parliament cannot be supposed willing to part with at a time when our Lives Estates and Religion are so visibly threatned to be swallowed up and destroyed by the
is in â—â—e mean time a member of the most persecuting and bloody Society that ever was cloathed with the name of a Church and whose cruelty towards Protestants he is careful not to arraign by fastning his offence at severity upon differences in smaller matters which he knows that those between Rome and us are not nor so accounted of by any of the papal Fellowship It were to be wished that the Dissenters would reflect and consider how when the late King had emitted a Declaration of Indulgence anno 1672. upon pretended motives of tenderness and compassion to his Protestant Subjects but in truth to keep all quiet at home when in conjunction with France he was engaging in an unjust war against a Reformed State abroad and in order to steal a liberty for the Papists to practice their Idolatries without incurring a suspition himself of being of the Romish Religion and in hope to wind up the prerogative to a paramount power over the law and how when the Parliament condemned the illegality of it and would have the Declaration recalled all his Kindness to Dissenters not only immediately vanished but turned into that Rage and fury that tho both that Parliament addressed for some favour to be shew'd them and another voted it a betraying of the Pretestant Religion to continue the execution of the penal laws upon them yet instead of their having any mercy or moderation exercised towards them they were thrown into a Furnace made seven times hotter than that wherein they had been scorched before And without pretending to be a Prophet I dare prognosticate and foretel that whensoever the present King hath compassed the Ends unto which this Declaration is designed to be subservient namely the placing the Papists both in the open exercise of their Religion and in all publick Offices and Trusts and the getting a power to be acknowledged vested in him over the Laws that then instead of the still voice calmly whispered from Whitehall they will both hear and feel the blasts of a mighty rushing wind and that upon pretended occasions arising from the abuse of this Indulgence or for some alledged crimes wherein they and all other Protestants are to be involved tho their supiness and excess of Loyalty continue to be their greatest offences this liberty will not only be withdrawn and the old Church of England severities revived but some of the new à là mode à France treatments come upon the stage and be pursued against them and all other perverse and obstinate British Hereticks The Declaration for liberty of Conscience being injurious to the Church of England and not proceeding from any inward and real good will to the Dissenters it will be worth our pains to inquire into and make a more ample deduction of the Reasons upon which it was granted that the grounds of emitting it being laid under every man's view they who have Addressed may come to be asham'd of their simplicity and folly they who have not may be farther confirmed both of the unlawfulness and inconveniency of doing it and that all who preserve any regard to the protestant Religion and the Laws of England may be quickned to the use of all legal and due means for preventing the mischievous effects which it is shapen for and which the Papists do promise themselves from it The motives upon which his Majesty published the Declaration may be reduced to three of which as I have already made some mention so I shall now place every one of them in its several and proper light and give such proofs and evidence of their being the great and sole inducements for the Emitting of it that no rational man shall be able henceforth to make a doubt of it The first is the Kings winding himself into a Supremacy and Absoluteness over the Law and the getting it acknowledged and calmly submitted unto and acquiesced in by the Subjects The Monarchies being legal and not Despotical bounded and regulat 〈…〉 by Laws and not to be exercised accoâ—ding to meer will and pleasure was th 〈…〉 which he could not digest the though 〈…〉 of when a Subject and had been hea 〈…〉 to say that he had rather Reign a day in th 〈…〉 absoluteness that the French King doth th 〈…〉 an Age tied up and restrained by Rules as 〈…〉 Brother did And therefore to persuade t 〈…〉 Prince of Orange to approve what He h 〈…〉 done in dispensing with the Laws and 〈…〉 obtain Him and the Princess to join wi 〈…〉 his Majesty and to employ their inter 〈…〉 in the Kingdom for the Repealing the T 〈…〉 Acts and the many other Statutes ma 〈…〉 against Roman Catholicks he used this Argâ—ment in a Message he sent to their Roy 〈…〉 Highnesses upon that errand that the ge 〈…〉 ting it done would be greatly to the aâ—vantage and for the increase of the prorog 〈…〉 tive but this these two noble Prince 〈…〉 of whose ascent to the Throne all Prâ—testants have so near and comfortable prospect were too generous as well 〈…〉 wise to be wheedled with as knowin 〈…〉 that the Authority of the Kings and Quee 〈…〉 of England is great enough by the Rul 〈…〉 of the Constitution without grasping at new prerogative power which as the La 〈…〉 have not vested in them so it would b 〈…〉 of no use but to inable them to do hur 〈…〉 And indeed it is more necessary both fo 〈…〉 the honor and safety of the Monarch an 〈…〉 for the freedom and security of the peopl 〈…〉 that the prerogative should be confined withi 〈…〉 its ancient and legal Channels than be left t 〈…〉 that illimited and unbounded latitude whic 〈…〉 the late King and his present Majesty have eâ—deavoured to advance and screw it up unto 〈…〉 That both the Declaration for liberty of Coâ—science in England and the Proclamation for Toleration in Scotland are calculated for raâ—sing the Soveraign Authority to a transceâ—dent Power over the Laws of the two Kingdoms may be demonstrated from the Papers themselves which lay the Dispensin 〈…〉 Power before us in terms that import n 〈…〉 less than his Majesties standing free an 〈…〉 solved from all ties and restraints and 〈◊〉 being cloathed with a Right of doing â—hatsoever he will. For if the Stile of 〈…〉 yal Pleasure to suspend the execution of 〈…〉 ch and such Laws and to forbid such 〈…〉 d such Oaths to be required to be taken 〈…〉 d this in the virtu ' of no Authority decla 〈…〉 d by the Laws to be resident in his Ma 〈…〉 sty but in the virtu ' of a certain vagrant 〈…〉 d indeterminate thing called Royal prero 〈…〉 tive as the power exercised in the English â—eclaration is worded and expressed be not 〈…〉 ough to enlighten us sufficiently in the 〈…〉 atter before us the Stile of Absolute Power â—hich all the Subjects are to obey without reâ—â—rve whereby the King is pleased to chalk â—efore us the Authority exerted in the
Loyal and faithful to himself save those who â—re willing to beâ—â—â—y their Countrey and be Rebells and Traitors against the Legal Constitution I say whosoever considers all this and a great deal more of the same Hue and complexion cannot imagine unless he be under a judicial blindness and a strange insatuation that any thing arriving from the King tho it may be a matter wherein they may find their present ease and advantage should proceed from compassion and good will to his Protestant Subjects but that it must be only in order to promote a distinct interest from that of his people and for the better and more easie accomplishing of some wicked and unjustifiable design And tho his Majesty would have us believe that the reasons moving him to the Emission of this 2â—â— Proclamation were the s 〈…〉 istruous Interpretations which either have or may be made of some Restrictions in his former yet it is not difficult even without being of his privy Council to assign a truer motive and a more real and effectual cause of it For as that of the 12 th of February came forth attended with so many limitations not casie to be digested by men of wisdom or honesty lest if it had been more unconfined and extensive and should have opened a Door for all Scotts Dissenters to have gone in and taken the benefit of it the generality of Protestants in that Kingdom abstracting from the Bishops Curaâ—es and a few others should have joined in the separate interest and thereby have become an united Body against popery but upon finding that hardly any would purchase their freedom from the penal laws at so dear a rate as to do things so unbecoming Men and Christians as the conforming to the Terms therein prescribed obliged them unto and that as they of the National Communion were alarm'd and disgusted so few or none of the Dissenting fellowships were pleased and that both were not only angry at the many illegal favours and threatning advantages bestowed upon the Papists but were grown so sensible of the design carrying on against the Protestant Religion and the liberties and priviledges of the Subject that tho they could not renounce their respective tenets in the matters wherein they differed yet they were willing to stifle their heats and animosities and to give that encouragement aid and assistance to one another as was necessary for their common safety upon these considerations his Majesty if he would have spoken sincerely ought to have said that he had published this new Proclamation in order to hinder Scots Protestants from uniting for their mutual defence against Turkish Tyranny and Romish Idolatry and in hopes thereby to continue and exasperate their undue and passionate heats and to keep them not only in divided and opposit interests but to make them contribute to the suppressing and ruining each other or at least to look on unconcernedly till he have ripened his designes against them both and be prepared for extirpating the Reformed Religion and for subverting the fundamental as well as Statute Laws and for bringing such to the stake and Gibbet as shall have the integrity to assert the one or the courage to plead for the other And yet in this last Proclamation wherein he grants a more illimited freedom than in the former and promiseth to Protect all in the exercise of Their Protestant Religion as he disdainfully and ignominiously calls it there is a clause that may discourage all honest men from owning their Liberty to the Authority that bestows it and from which it is derived and conveyed to them For not being satisfied to superstruct his pretended Right of Suspending S 〈…〉 pping and Disabling Laws upon his Soveraign Authority and Prerogative Royal but as knowing that these give no such pre-eminence and Iurisdiction over the Laws of the Kingdom he is pleased to challeng unto himself an Absolute Power as the source and spring of that exorbitant and Paramount Claim which he therein exerciseth and exerts And forasmuch as Absolute Power imports his Majesties being loose and free from all ties and restraints either by fundamental Stipulations or superadded Laws it is very natural to observe that he allows the Government under which we were born and to which we were sworn and stood bound to be hereby subverted and changed and that thereupon we are not only absolved and acquitted from the Allegiance and fealty we were formerly under to his Majesty but are indispensably obliged by the â—ies and engagements that are upon us of maintaining and defending the Constitution and Government to apply our selves to the use of all means and endeavours against him as an Enemy of the people and a subverter of the legal Government wherein all the interest he had or could lawfully claim was an official Trust and noâ— an Absolute 〈◊〉 or a despoâ—icat Dominion the first whereof he hath deposed aâ—d abdicated himself from by challenging and usurping the latter And should any Scots dissenter either in his entrance upon the Liberty granted by this Proclamation or in addressing by way of thankfulness for it take the least notice of this freedom's flowing from the King which cannot be done without Recognising this Absolute Power in his Majesty as the fountain of it he is to be lookt upon as the worst of Traitors and deserves to be proceeded against both for his aecession unto a 〈…〉 justifying the subversion of the Laws Libe 〈…〉 ties and Government of his Country anâ— for betraying the Rights of all free-borâ— men For those few Reflections in thâ— fore going Sheets which this New Proclamation may not only seem to render useless and frustrate the end whereunto they werâ— intended but may make the publishing anâ— animadversions upon that which the Kinâ— by departing from does himself Censure anâ— condemn be esteemed both a faileur iâ— in genuity and candor and a want of rega 〈…〉 to those Measures of Justice which oughâ— to be observed towards all men and morâ— especially towards Crowned Heads I shalâ— only say that as the Proclamation arrived wi 〈…〉 me too late to hinder and prevent the communication of them to the publick so I have this farther to add in justification oâ— their being published that it will thereby appear that what his Majesty stiles sinistruo 〈…〉 Interpretations made of some Restrictions mentioned in his former are no other than the just natural genuine and obvious constructions which they ly open unto and are capable of and which a man cannot avoid fastning upon them without renouncing all Sense and Reason And while the King continues to disparage and asperse all sober and judicious Reflections upon that Royal Paper by charging upon them the unjust and reproachful Character of sinistruous Interpretations it is necessary as well as equal that the whole matter should be plâ—iâ—ly and impartially represented to the World and that the 〈◊〉 â—be re 〈…〉 tted and lâ—â—t to the understanding and 〈…〉 ass ' 〈…〉 part of mankind who are the calumniators and Slanderers they who accuse the Proclamation of importing such principles consequences and tendencies or he and his Ministers who think they have avoided and answered the imputations fastned upon it when they have loaded them with hard and uncivil terms For tho he be pleased to assume to himself an Absolute Power which all are bound to obey without reserve and in the virtue of which 〈…〉 e Suspends Stops and Disables what Laws he â—leaseth yet I do not know but that his 〈…〉 ntellectuals being of the size of other mens 〈…〉 nd that seeing neither his Soveraignity 〈…〉 or Catholicalness have vested in him an 〈…〉 nerrability why we may not enter our 〈…〉 lea and demurr to the dictates of his Judgment tho we know not how to withstand the efforts of his Power Nor shall I sub 〈…〉 oin any more save that whereas his Ma 〈…〉 esty Declares so many Laws to be disabled to 〈…〉 ll Intents and purposes he ought to have remembred that beside other intents and purposes that several of them may hereafter serve unto as the Papists may possibly come to have experience there is one thing in reference to which he cannot even at present hinder prevent their usefulness and efficacy and that is not only their raising and exciting all just resentments in the minds of free-born and generous men for his challenging a Power to Suspend and Cassate them but their remaining and continuing Monuments of his Infidelity to the Trust reposed in him of his departure from all promises made at and since his entring upon the Government and of his invading and subverting all the Rules of the Constitution FINIS Pag. 4 col 2. lin 3. after Court put ibid. lin 41. r. knew P. 5. col 1. l. 3. r. account ibid. l. 30. r. inpemperate ibid. col 2. l. 35. r. in P. 6. col 2. l. 18. aiteâ— Order put P. 7. col 2. l 39. for anâ— as P. 11. col 1. l. 32. r. stirred up ibid. l. penult 1. judg P. 25. col 2. in the margin r. Rot. Parl. 7. Hen. 4. P. 31. col 2. l. 11. r. obsoleâ—e P. 40. col 1. l. 38. r. Promisee P. 47. col 1. l. 27. r. reverse Hist. of the Times Proef. to h 〈…〉 Hist. of th 〈…〉 Times p. 〈◊〉 De Laudib Leg. Angl. c. 9. Bract. lib. 〈…〉 cap. 16. Fle 〈…〉 lib. 1. c. 17. Lib. 3 〈…〉 cap. 9 〈…〉 Rol. Parl. 7. Hist. 4 Num. 59. See Mr. Alsops Speech to the King.
found to have taken Orders in 〈…〉 e Church of Rome obnoxious to death or 〈…〉 ose other Statutes by which the King hath 〈…〉 ower Authority for levying two thirds of 〈…〉 eir Estates that shall be convicted of Recu 〈…〉 cy but by an usurped prerogative and an Absolute power he is pleased to suspend all 〈…〉 e Laws by which they were only disabled 〈…〉 rom hurting us thro standing precluded 〈…〉 rom places of power and trust in the Government So that the whole security we have in time to come for our Religion depends upon the temperate disposition and good nature of those Roman Catholicks that shall be advanced to Offices and Employments and does no longer bear upon the protection and support of the Law and I think we have not had that experience of grace and favour from Papists as may give us 〈…〉 just confidence of fair and candid treatment from them for the future Now that we may be the better convinced how little security we have from his Majesties promise in his Declaration of his protecting the Arch Bishops Bishops and Clergy and all other his subjects of the Church of England in the free exercise of their Religion as by Law established and in the quiet and full enjoyment of their possessions without any molestation or disturbance whatsoever which is all the Tenour that is left us 't is not unworthy of observation how that beside the suspending the Bishop of London ab Officio and the Vice Chanceller of Cambridg both ab Officio and Beneficio and this not only for Actions which the Laws of God and the Kingdom make their duty but thro a sentence inflicted upon them by no legal Court of Judicature but by five or six mercinary persons supported by a Tyrannous and Arbitrary Commission his Majesty in his Proclamation for Toleration in Scotland â—earing date the 12. of February doth among many other Laws cass disable and dispense with the Law enjoining the Scots Test tho it was not only enacted by himself while he represented his Brother as his high Commissioner but hath been confirmed by him in Parliament since he came to the Crown Surely it is as easie to depart from a promise made in a Declaration as 't is to absolve and discharge himself from the obligation of a Law which he first concurred to the enacting of and gave the creating Fiat unto as the late Kings Commissioner and hath since ratified in Parliament after he was come to the Throne As there is no more infidelity dishonor and injustice so there is less of absolute power and illegality in doing the one than the other Nor is it possible for a rational man to place a confidence in his Majesties Royal word for the protection of our Religion and the Church of England men's enjoying their possessions seeing he hath not only departed from his promise made to the Council immediately after his Brothers death but hath violated his Faith given to the Parliament of England at their first Session which we might have thought would have been the more sacred and binding by reason of the grandure state and quality of the Assembly to which it was pledged If we consider how much protestants suffered what number of them was burnt at the stake as well as murderd in Goals beside the vast multitudes who to avoid the rage and power of their Enemies were forced to abandon their Countrey and seek for shelter in forraign parts and what endeavoures of all kinds were used for the Extirpation of our Religion under QueenMary we may gather and learn from thence what is to be dreaded from James the II. who is the next popish Prince to her that since the Reformation hath sat on the Throne of England For tho there be many things that administer grounds of hope that the Papists will not find it so easie a matter to bring us in shoals to the stake nor of that quick and easie dispatch to suppress the protestant Religion and set up Popery at this time as they found it then yer every thing that occurs to our thoughts or that can affect our understandings serves not only to persuade us into a belief that they will set upon and endeavour it but to work us up to an assurance that his Majesty would take it for a di 〈…〉 ution of his glory as well as reflection upon his zeal for the Church of Rome not to attempt what a woman had both the courage to undertake and the fortune to go thro with And there is withal a concurrence of so many things both abroad and at home at this juncture which if laid in the ballance with the motives to our hope of the papists miscarrying may justly raise our fears of their prospering to a very sad and uncomfortable height Whosoever shall compare these two Princes together will find that there was less danger to be apprehended from Mary and that not only upon the score of her Sex but by reason of a certain gentleness and goodness of nature which all Historians of judgment and credit ascribe unto her than is to be expected from the present King in whom a sourness of temper fierceness of disposition and pride joined with a peevishness of humour not to bear the having his will disputed or controlled are the principal ingredients into his Constitution and which are all strangely heightned and enflamed by contracted distempers of Body and thro furious principles of mind which he hath imbib'd from the Iesuites who of all men carry the obligations arising from the Doctrines of the popish Religion to the most outragious and inhumane excesses Nor can I forbear to add that whereas the cruelty which that Princess was hurried into even to the making her Cities common shambles and her streets Theatres of murder for innocent persons for which she became hated while she lived and her memory is rendred infamous to all Generations that come after was wholly and entirely owing to her Religion which not only proclaims it lawful but a necessary duty of Christianity and an act meriting a peculiar Crown of Glory in heaven to destroy Hereticks 't is to be feared there will be found in the present King a spice of revenge against us as we are Englishmen as well as a measu 〈…〉 heap't up and running over of furious 〈◊〉 zeal against us as we are Protestants 〈◊〉 the wrath he bears unto us for our depar 〈…〉 from the Communion of the Romish Chu 〈…〉 and our rebellion against the triple Crow 〈…〉 the war wherein many of the Kingdom wer 〈…〉 engaged against his Father and the issue of it in the execution of that Monarch is what he hath been heard to say that he hopes to revenge upon the Nation And all that the City of London underwent thro that dreadful conflagration 1666. of which he was the great Author and Promoter as well as the Rescuer and Protector of the Varlets that were apprehended in their spreading and
forefeiture of their lives to justice And as the imposing an Oath not warranted by Law is a high Act of Absolute Power and in the King an altering of the Constitution so if we look into the Oath it self we shall find this Absolute Power strangly manifested and displayed in all the parts and branches of it and the people required to swear themselves his Majesties most obedient Slaves and Vassalls By one Paragraph of it they are required to swear that it is unlawful for Subjects on any pretence or for any Cause whatsoever to rise in Arms against him or any Commissioned by him and that they shall never resist his power or Authority which as it may be intended for a foundation and means of keeping men quiet when he shall break in upon their Estates and overthrow their Religion so it may be designed as an encouragement to his Catholick Subjects to set upon the cutting Protestants throats when by this Oath their hands are tied up from hindring them It is but for the Papists to come Authorised with his Majesties Commission which will not be denied them for so meritorious a work and then there is no help nor remedy but we must stretch out our necks and open our breasts to their consecrated swords and sanctified daggers Nay if the King should transfer the Succession to the Crown from the Rightful Heir to some zealous Romanist or Alienat and dispose his Kingdoms in way of donation and gift to the Pope or to the Society of the Iesuites and for the better securing them in the possessioâ— hereafter should invest and place them iâ— the enjoyment of them while he lives thâ— Scotts are bound in the virtue of this Oatâ— tamely to look on and calmly to acquiescâ— in it Or should his Physitians advise him to 〈◊〉 nightly variety of Matron's and Maids as thâ— best remedy against his malignant and venemous heats all of that Kingdom are bounâ— to surrender their Wives and daughters to him with a du'tiful silence and a profound veneration And if by this Oath he can securâ— himself from the opposition of his dissenting Subjects in case thro recovery of their Reason a fit of ancient zeal should surprise them he is otherway's secured of an Asiatick tameness in his prelatical people by a principlâ— which they have lately imbib'd but neitheâ— learned from their Bibles nor the Statutes oâ— the Land. For the Clergy upon thinking that the wind would alway's blow out of one quarter and being resolved to make that a duty by their learning which their interest at that season made convenient have preached up the Doctrine of passive Obedience to such a boundless height that they have done what in them lyes to give up themselves and all that had the weakness to believe them fettered and bound for sacrifices to popish rage and Despotical Tyranny But for my self and I hope the like of many others I thank God I am not tainted with that slavish and adulatory doctrine as having alway's thought that the first duty of every member of a Body politick is to the Community for whose safety and good Governours are instituted and that it is only to Rulers as they are found to answer the main ends they are appointed for and to Act by the legal Rules that are Chalcks out unto them Whether it be from my dulness or that my understanding is of a perverser make than other mens I cannot tell but I could never yet be otherway's minded than that the Rules of the Constitution and the Laws of the Republick or Kingdom are to be the measures both of the Soveraigns Commands and of the Subjects obedience and that as we are not to invade what by concessions and stipulations belongs unto the Ruler so we may not only lawfully but we ought to defend what is reserved to our selves if it be invaded and broken in upon And as without such a Right in the Subjects all legal Governments and mixt Monarchies were but emptie names and ridiculous things so wheresoever the Constitution of a Nation is such there the Prince who strives to subvert the Laws of the Society is the Traitor and Rebel and not the people who endeavour to preserve and defend them There is yet another branch of the foresaid Oath that is of a much more unreasonable strain than the former which is that they shall to the utmost of their Power assist defend and maintain him in â—he exercise of this Absolute Power and Authority which being tack't to our Obeying without reserve make us the greatest Slaves that either are or ever were in the universe Our Kings were heretofore bound to Govern according to law and so is his present Majesty if a Coronation Oath and faith to Hereticks were not weaker than Sampson's cords proved to be but instead of that here is a new Oath imposed upon the Subjects by which they are bound to protect and defend the King in his Ruling Arbitrarily It had been more than enough to have required only a calm submitting to the exercise of Absolute Power but to be injoined to swear to assist and defend his Majesty and Successors in all things wherein they shall exert it is a plain destroying of all natural as well as Civil Liberty and a robbing us of that freedom that belongs unto us both as we are men and as we are born under a free and legal Government For by this we become bound to dragg our Brethren to the Stake to cutt their Throats plunder their Houses embrew our hands in the Blood of our Wives and Children if his Majesty please to make these the Instances wherein he will exert his Absolute Power and require us to assist him in the exercise of it As it was necessary to Cancell all other Oaths and Tests as being directly inconsistent with this so the requiring the Scotts to swear this Oath is the highest reveng he could take for their Solemn league and Covenant and for all other Oaths that lust after Arbitrariness and Popish Bigottry will pronounce to have been injurious to the Crown But no words are sufficient to express the mischiefs wrapt up in that new Oath or to declare the abhorrency that all who value the Rights and liberties of mankind ought to entertain for it nor to proclaim the villany of those who shall by Addresses give thanks for the Proclamation There may a fourth thing be added whereby it will appear that his Majesties assuming Absolute Power stands recorded in Capital Letters in his Declaration for liberty of Conscience For not being contented to omit the requiring the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy and the Test Oaths to be taken nor being satisfied to suspend for a season the enjoining any to be demanded to take them he tells us that it is his Royal will and pleasure that the foresaid Oaths shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken which is a full and direct Repealing of the Laws in which they are Enacted It
these being â—incible to a person of an ardent love to God â—nd of a lively faith in Jesus Christ and which accordingly many thousands have been â—riumphantly victorious over Nor is it likely that this new and uncouth phrase of â—ot using an invincible nec 〈…〉 would have found room in a Paper of that nature if it had not been first to counceal some malicious and mischievous design and then to justify the consistency of its execution with what is promised in the Proclamation Moreover were there that security intended by these two Royal Papers that protestant Dissenters might safely rely upon or did the King act with that sincerity which he would delude his people into a belief of there would then be a greater agreeableness than there is betwixt the Declaration for liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland The principle his Majesty pretends to act from that Conscience ought not to be constrained and that none ought to be persecuted for meer matters of Religion would obliege him to act uniformly and with an equal extention of favour to all his Subjects whose principles are the same and against whom he hath no exception but in matters meerly Religious Whereas the disparity of grace kindness and freedom that is exercised in the Declaration from that which is exerted in the Proclamation plainly shews that the whole is but a Trick of State and done in sâ—bserviency to an end which it is not yet seasonable to discover and avow For his circumscribing the Toleration in Scotland to such Presbyterians as he stiles moderate is not only a taking it off from its true bottom matters of meer Religion and a founding it upon an internal quality of the mind that is not discernable but it implyes the reserving a liberty to himself of withdrawing the benefits of it from all Scots Dissenters thro fastning upon them a contrary Character whensoever it shall be seasonable to revive persecution And even as it is now exerted to these moderate ones it is attended with Restrictions that his Indulgence in England is no ways clog'd with All that the Declaration requires from those that are indulged is that their Assemblies be peaceably openly and publickly held that all Persons be freely admitted to them that they signify and make known to some Justice of the peace what places they set apart for these uses and that nothing be preached or taught amongst them which may any ways tend to alienate the bearâ—s of the people from the King or his Government whereas the Proclamation not only restrains the meetings of the Scots Presbyterians to private Houses without allowing them either to build meeting Houses or to use out-houses or Barns but it prohibits the hearing any Ministers save such as shall be willing to swear that they shall to the utmost of their Power assist defend and maintain the King in the exercise of his Absolute power against all deadly Nor is it difficult to assign the reason of the difformity that appears in His Majesties present Actings towards his dissenting Protestanâ— Subjects in those two Kingdoms For should there be no Restriction upon the Toleration in Scotland to hinder the greatest part of the Presbyterians from taking the advantage of it the Bishops and Conforming Clergy would be immediately forsaken by the generality if not all the people and so an â—ssue would not only be put to the division among Protestants in that Kingdom but they would become an united and thereupon a formidable Body against Popery which it is not for the interest of the Roman Catholicks to suffer or give way unto Whereas the more unbounded the Liberty is that is granted to Dissenters in England the more are our divisions not only kept up but increased and promoted especially thro this Freedom's arriving with them in an illegal way without both the Authority of the Legislative Power and the approbation of a great part of the People it being infallibly certain that there is a vast number of all ranks and conditions who do prefer the abiding in the Communion of the Church of England before the joining in fellowship with those of the Separate and dissenting Societies Upon the whole this different method of proceeding towards Dissenting Protestants in matters meerly Religious shews that all this Indulgence and Toleration is a Trick to serve a present juncture of Affairs and to advance a Popish and Arbitrary design and that the Dissenters have no security for the continuance of their Liberty but that when the Court and Jesuitick end is compassed and obtained there is another course to be steered towards them and instead of their hearing any longer of Liberty and Toleration they are to be told that it is the interest of the Government and the safety and honor of his Majesty to have but one Religion in his Dominions and that all must be Members of the Catholick Church and this because the King will have it so which is the Argument that hath been made use of in the making so many Converts in France They who now suffer themselves to be deluded into a confidence in the Royal word will not only come to understand what Mr. Coleman meant in his telling Pere de la Chaise that the Catholicks in England had a great work upon their hand being about the extirpation 〈◊〉 that Heresie which hath born sway so long 〈◊〉 this Northern part of the world but they wiâ—â— also see and feel how much of the desig 〈…〉 of Rome was represented in that passage 〈◊〉 the Popes Nuncio's Letter dated at Bruxel 〈…〉 Aug. 9. 1674. wherein upon the confidencâ— which they placed in the Duke of York whicâ— is not lessened since he came to the Crown he takes the confidence to write that theâ— hop'd speedily to see the total and final ruin 〈◊〉 the Protestant Party And as Protestant Dissenters have no secu rity by the Declaration and Proclamation foâ— the continuance of their Liberty so theâ— that have by way of thanksgiving Addresseâ— to the King for those Royal Papers have noâ— only acted very ill in reference both to the Laws and Rights of the Kingdoms and of Religion in general but they have carried very unwisely in relation to their own interest and the avoiding the effects of that resentment which most men are justly possessed with upon the illegal Emission of these Arbitrary and Prerogative Papers I shall not enter upon any long Discourse concerning this new practice of Addressing in general it having been done elsewhere some years ago but I shall only briefly intimate that it was never in fashion unless either under a weak and precarious Government or under one that took illegal courses and puâ—sued a different interest from that of the People and Community As he who Ruleth according to the standing Laws of a Countrey over which he is set needs not seek for an Approbation of his Actions from a part of his Subjects the Legality of his proceedings
could to give them relief in a legal way Where as if any thing enflame and exasperate t 〈…〉 Nation to revive their sufferings it wi 〈…〉 arise from a resentment of the unworth 〈…〉 and treacherous carriage of so many 〈◊〉 them in this critical and dangerous ju 〈…〉 cture But the Terms which thro their A 〈…〉 dressing they have owned the receivi 〈…〉 their Liberty and Indulgence upon does in peculiar manner enhance their guilt again 〈…〉 God and their Countrey and strangely ad 〈…〉 to the disgust and anger which lovers 〈◊〉 Religion and the Laws of the Nation hav 〈…〉 conceived against them For it is Hot onl 〈…〉 upon the acknowledgment of a preroga 〈…〉 in the King over the Laws that they hav 〈…〉 received and now hold their Liberty b 〈…〉 it is upon the condition that nothing be preach 〈…〉 or taught amongst them that may any ways tend 〈◊〉 alienate the hearts of the People from his Majesti 〈…〉 person and Government He must be of an u 〈…〉 derstanding very near allied unto and approaching to that of an Irish man who do 〈…〉 not know what the Court sense of that clau 〈…〉 is and that his Majesty thereby intends th 〈…〉 they are not to preach against Popery nor t 〈…〉 set forth the Doctrines of the Romish Church i 〈…〉 terms that may prevent the peoples being i 〈…〉 â—ected by them much less in colours th 〈…〉 may render them hated and abhorred T 〈…〉 accuse the Kings Religion of Idolatry or 〈◊〉 affirm the Church of Rome to be the Apoc 〈…〉 lyptick Babylon and to represent the Articl 〈…〉 of the Tridentine Faith as faithful Ministers 〈◊〉 Christ ought to do would be accounted a 〈…〉 alienating the hearts of their hearers from t 〈…〉 King and his Government which as they 〈◊〉 in the foresaid Clause required noâ— to do 〈◊〉 they have by their Addressing confessed t 〈…〉 Iustice of the Terms and have undertaken 〈◊〉 〈…〉 old their liberty by that Tenor. And to give 〈…〉 em their due they have been very faithful 〈…〉 itherto in conforming to what the King 〈…〉 xacts and in observing what themselves have 〈…〉 ented to the equity of For notwithstan 〈…〉 ing all the danger from popery that the Na 〈…〉 on is exposed unto and all the hazard that 〈…〉 e Souls of men are in of being poysoned 〈…〉 i th Romish principles yet instead of prea 〈…〉 ing or writing against any of the Doctrines of 〈…〉 e Church of Rome they have agreed among 〈…〉 emselves and with such of their Congre 〈…〉 ations as approve their procedure not so 〈…〉 uch as to mention them but to leave the 〈…〉 rovince of defending our Religion and of 〈…〉 etecting the falshood of papal Tenets to the 〈…〉 astors and Gentlemen of the Church of Eng 〈…〉 nd And being ask'd as I know some of 〈…〉 em that have been why they do not preach 〈…〉 gainst Antichrist and confuse the papal Do 〈…〉 rines they very gravely reply that by prea 〈…〉 ing Christ they preach against Antichrist 〈…〉 nd that by Teaching the Gospel they Re 〈…〉 te Popery which is such a piece of fraudu 〈…〉 ent and guilful subâ—erfuge that I want words 〈…〉 o express the knavery and criminalness of it What a reserve and change have I lived to see 〈…〉 n England from what I beheld a few years 〈…〉 go It was but the other day that the Con 〈…〉 rmable Clergy were represented by some of 〈…〉 he Dissenters not only as favourers of 〈…〉 opery but as endeavouring to hale it in upon 〈…〉 s by all the methods and ways that lay within 〈…〉 heir circle and yet now the whole defence of 〈…〉 e Reformed Religion must be entirely de 〈…〉 olved into their hands and when all the 〈…〉 ces are pulled up that had been made to 〈…〉 inder Popery from overflowing the Nation 〈…〉 ey must be left alone to stemm the inun 〈…〉 ation and prevent the deluge They among 〈…〉 e Fanaticks that boasted to be the most avo 〈…〉 ed and irreconcilable Enemies of the Church 〈…〉 f Rome are not only become altogether si 〈…〉 ent when they see the Kingdom pesterd with 〈◊〉 swarm of busie and seducing Emissaries but 〈…〉 e both turned Advocats for that Arbitrary 〈…〉 aper whereby we are surrendred as a prey 〈…〉 nto them and do make it their business to detract from the reputation and discourage the laboures of the National Ministers who with a zeal becoming their Office and a learning which deserves to be admired have set themselves in opposition to that croaking fry and have done enough by their excellent and unimitable Writings to save people from being deluded and perverted if either unanswerable consutations of Popery or demonstrative Defences of the Articles and Doctrines of the Reformed Religion can have any efficacy upon the minds of men Among other fulsom flatteries adorning a Speach made to his Majesty by an Addressing Dissenter I find this hypocritical and shameful adulation namely that if there should remain any seeds of disloyalty in any of his Subjects the transcendent goodness exerted in his Declaration would morâ—isie and kill them to which he might have added with more truth that the same transcendent goodness had almost destroyed all the seeds of their honesty and mortied their care and concernment for the interest of Iesus Christ and for the Reformed Religion Their old strain of zealous preaching against the Idolaâ—ry of Rome and concerning the coming out of Babylon my people are grown out of fashion with them in England and are only reserved and said by to recommend them to the kindness and acceptation of forraign Protestants when their occasions and conveniencies draw them over to Amsterdam Whosoever comes into their Assemblies would think for any thing that he there hears delivered from their pulpits that She which was the Whore of Babylon a few years ago were now become a chast Spouse and that what were heretofore the damnable Doctrines of Popery were of late turned innocent and Harmless opinions The Kings Declaration would seem to have brought some of them to a melius inquirendum and as they are already arrived to believe a Roman Catholick the best King that they may in a little time come to esteem Papists for the best Christians The keeping back nothing that is profitable to save such as hear them and the declaring the whole Counsel of God that are the Terms upon which they receiyed their Commission from Iesus Christ and wherein they have Pauls practice and example for a pattern would seem to be things under the Power of the Royal prerogative and that the King may supercede them by the same Authority by which he dispenses with the penal Statutes Which as it is very agreeable unto and imported in his Majesties Claim of being obeyed without reserve so the owning this Absolute Power with that annex of challenged obedience does acquit them from all obligations to
the Laws of Christ when they are found to interfere with what is required by the King. But whether Gods Power or the Kings be superior and which of the two can cassate the others Laws and whose wrath is most terrible the judgment day will be able and sure to instruct them if all means in this world prove insufficient for it The Addressers know upon what conditions they hold their Liberty and they have not only observed how several of the National Clergy have been treated for preaching against Popery but they have heard how divers of the Reformed Ministers in France before the general suppression were dealt with for speaking against their Monarchs Religion and therefore they must be pardoned if they carry so as not to provoke his Majesty tho in the mean time thro their â—â—lence they both betray the Cause of their Lord and Master and are unfaithful to the Soules of those of whom they have taken upon them the spiritual guidance As for the Papers themselves that are stiled by the name of Addresses I shall not meddle with them being as to the greatest part of them fitter to be exposed and ridicul'd either for their dulness and pedantry or for the adulation and sycophancy with which they are fulsomly stuffâ— than to deserve any serious consideration or to merit reflections that may prove instructive to Mankind Only as that Address wherein his Majesty is thanked for his restoring God to his Empire over Conscience deserveth a rebuke for its blasphemy so that other which commends him for promising to force the Parliament to raâ—iâ—y his Declaration tho by the way all he says is that he does not doubt of their concurrence which yet his ill succ 〈…〉 upon the closetting of so many Member 〈…〉 and his since Dissolving that Parliament shews that there was some cause for the doub 〈…〉 ting of it I say that other Address merits severe Censure for its insolency against th 〈…〉 legislative Authority And the Authors of 〈◊〉 ought to be punished for their crime com 〈…〉 mitted against the Liberty and Freedom 〈◊〉 the two Houses and for encouraging th 〈…〉 King to invade and subvert their most essen 〈…〉 tial and fundamental Priviledges and withou 〈…〉 which they can neither be a Council Judi 〈…〉 cature nor Lawgivers After all I hope the Nation will be so in 〈…〉 genuous as not to impute the miscarriages 〈◊〉 some of the nonconformists to the whole part 〈…〉 much less to ascribe them to the principles o 〈…〉 Dissenters For as the points wherein the 〈…〉 differ from the Church of England are purel 〈…〉 of another Nature and which have no re 〈…〉 lation to Politicks so the influence that the 〈…〉 are adapted to have upon men as member 〈…〉 of Civil Societies is to make them in a specia 〈…〉 manner regardful of the Rights and Fran 〈…〉 chises of the Community But if some nei 〈…〉 ther understand the tendency of their ow 〈…〉 principles nor are true and faithful unto them these things are the personal faults of thos 〈…〉 men and are to be attributed to their ig 〈…〉 norance or to their dishonesty nor are thei 〈…〉 carriages to be counted the effects of thei 〈…〉 Religious Tenets much less are others of the party to be involved under the reproach an 〈…〉 guilt of their imprudent and ill conduct 〈…〉 Which there is the more cause to acknow 〈…〉 ledg because tho the Church of England ha 〈…〉 all the reason of the World to decline Addressing in that all her legal Foundation a 〈…〉 well as Security is shaken by the Declaration yet there are some of her Dignitaries and C 〈…〉 gy as well as divers of the Members of he 〈…〉 Communion who upon motives of Ambition Covetousness Fear or Courtship hav 〈…〉 enrolled themselves into the Liâ—â— of Addre 〈…〉 sers and under pretence of giving thanks 〈◊〉 the King for his promise of protecting 〈◊〉 Arch-Bishops Bishops and Clergy and a 〈…〉 〈…〉 erof the Church of England in the free Exer 〈…〉 of their Religion as by Law established 〈…〉 ve cut the throat of their Mother at 〈…〉 ose breasts they have suckt till they are 〈…〉 own fat both by acknowledging the usur 〈…〉 prerogative upon which the King assumes 〈◊〉 Right and Authority of Emitting the De 〈…〉 ration and by exchanging the legal standâ—â—g and Security of their Church into that 〈…〉 ecarious one of the Royal word which 〈…〉 ey fly unto as the bottom of her Subsistence 〈…〉 d trust to as the wall of her defence And 〈◊〉 most of the Members of the Separate So 〈…〉 ties are free from all accession to Ad 〈…〉 essing and the few that concurred were 〈…〉 eerly drawn in by the wheedle and impor 〈…〉 nity of their Preachers so they who are 〈◊〉 the chiefest Character and greatest repu 〈…〉 tion for Wisdom and Learning among 〈…〉 e Ministers have preserved themselves 〈…〉 om all folly and treachery of that kind The Apostle tells us that not many wise not â—any noble are called which as it is verified 〈◊〉 many of the Dissenting Addressers so it â—ay serve for some kind of Apology for their 〈…〉 ow and sneaking as well as for their in 〈…〉 iscret and imprudent behaviour in this matâ—er And it is the more venial in some of â—hem as being not only a means of ingra 〈…〉 iating themselves as they phansie with â—he King who heretofore had no very good â—pinion of them but as being both an easie â—nd 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 〈…〉 ccused 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 〈…〉 oyal 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 it its whole interest come to ly 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 withall 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