Exchequer where he pleaded and the King's Counsel demurring the Point in Law came to be argued on both sides Mr. Whitlock has a remarkable Passage of Judg Croke concerning his Opinion in the Case of which he speaks knowingly viz. that the Judg was resolved to give his Judgment for the King and to that end had prepared his Argument yet a few Days before he was to argue upon some Discourse with some of his nearest Relations and most serious Thoughts of the Business and being heartned thereto by his Lady who was a good and pious Woman told her Husband upon this Occasion That she hoped he would do nothing against his Conscience for fear of any Danger or Prejudice to him or his Family and that she was content to suffer Want or any Misery with him rather than be an Occasion for him to do or say any thing against his Conscience or Judgment Upon these and many the like Incouragements but chiefly upon better thoughts he suddenly altered his Purpose and Arguments and when it came to his turn contrary to Expectation he argued and declared his Opinion against the King and so did Judg Hutton after however the rest of the Judges gave their Opinions against Mr. Hambden However the King this Year to sweeten the Judges Opinion for levying Ship-Money set out a Navy of sixty Men of War to disturb the Dutch Fishing on the Coasts of England and Scotland under the Command of the Earl of Northumberland who seized and sunk several of the Dutch Busses whereupon they sued to the King for leave to fish promising to pay an Acknowledgment of 30000 l. per Annum But this ill agreed with the King's Reason for levying Ship-Money which was that Pirats infested our Coasts to the indangering the Safety of the Nation See William de Britaine f. 16 17. But if the Dutch were thus bold upon our Coasts by the Liberty granted them by Hugo Grotius they were much bolder in the East-Indies where they stile themselves Soveraigns of all the Seas in the World for Anno 1620 they seized upon two Ships of the English called the Bear and the Star in the Straits of Mallaca going to China and confiscated Ships and Goods valued at 150000 l. I suppose Grotius could not give a like Instance of any Dutch Ships so used for passing through the Channel and last Year viz. 1635 an English Ship called the Bona Esperanza going towards China by the Straits of Mallaca was violently assaulted by three Dutch Men of War the Master and many of the Men killed and the Ship brought into Mallaca and there the Ship and Goods were confiscate valued at 150000 l. and this very Year the Dragon and Katherine two English Ships of Sir William Courten valued at 300000 l. besides the Commanders and others who had great Estates in them were set upon by seven Dutch Men of War as they past the Straits of Mallaca from China and by them taken the Men tied back to back and thrown over-board the Goods taken out of the Ships which were sunk and seized for the State The State and Church of England thus established in Doctrine and Discipline the Arch-bishop's next Care was to have the same in Scotland and herein he was so absolute that the King told the Marquess Hamilton when he was his Commissioner in Scotland that the Arch-bishop was the only English-man he entrusted in the Ecclesiastical Affairs in Scotland and no Care need be had of the Church of Ireland since my Lord Viscount Wentworth was Lieutenant there who to all Intents pursued the Arch-bishop's Instructions Here let 's see how the Church stood in Scotland before the Arch-bishop undertook to reform it James the 5th of Scotland died the 13th of December 1542 leaving only one Daughter Mary but five Days old by Mary of Lorain his Wife Sister to Francis Duke of Guise and Charles Cardinal of Lorain two the most powerful Princes in France after King Henry the 2d and the most zealously addicted to the Popish Religion After the King's Death Cardinal Beaton got a Priest Henry Balfour to forge the King's Will whereby the Cardinal the Earls of Huntley Argile and Murray were to have the Government during the Queen's Minority but the Nobility not believing it chose the Earl of Arran Governour and Henry the King of England desiring to unite the Kingdoms by marrying his Son Edward with the Infant-Queen sent a solemn Embassy to the Governour and Council of Scotland to consent to this Marriage which was done only the Queen Dowager and the Cardinal dissenting and this was confirm'd by the Parliament convened at Edinburgh the 13th of March following Yet the Queen-Mother and Cardinal got the Queen to be married to Francis the Dauphin Son of Henry the 2d of France In this Parliament the Scots were permitted to read the Scripture in the English Tongue till the Prelates should publish one more correct But in the Year 1559 the Scots began their Reformation in Religion at Perth the intervening Accidents of the Scots Endeavours to reform and the Opposition by the Regent the Cardinal and the Prelates you may read in Bishop Spotswood's History of the Church of Scotland and Sir Melvil's Memoirs To suppress the Progress of this Reformation the Queen-Mother who was Regent calls in an Army and Navy of French to oppose them The Reformers call in an Army and Navy of English the English Fleet fire the French Ships in their Harbour and compel the French to leave Scotland and in 1560 the Queen Regent died leaving Scotland in a kind of Interregnum In August following a Parliament convened at Edinburgh by a Warrant from the King and Queen wherein the Mass and Popery were suppressed and the Reformation of the Kirk of Scotland in Doctrine and Discipline established but the King and Queen now of France as well as Scotland refused to confirm either nor was this Kirk-Doctrine and Discipline confirmed till the Queen was deposed and Murray made Regent in 1567. The Reformation was purely after the Mode of Calvin and Church of Geneva a Common-Prayer was ordained not strictly to be observed but as a Pattern of Prayer In it were ordained four sorts of Assemblies viz. National Provincial Weekly Meetings of Ministers and the Eldership of every Parish Superintendents were likewise established whose Office was to visit the Kirk within limited Places these had Power to cite and deprive Ministers but must be assisted by some grave Ministers next adjoining as also to ordain Ministers But the Hierarchy of the Church of Scotland as they were esteemed one of the States in Parliament was not then nor after taken away by Parliament nor their Power of Ordination and Visiting within their Diocesses yet in Visitation and Ordination the Superintendents had a concurring Power with the Bishops and the Bishops were subject to be cited and proceeded against for Scandal neglect of their Office Symony c. by the General Assemblies This Reformation viz. 1581 was subscribed by
Peace between England and Spain whereto both Kings were equally disposed more smooth and easy Yet Philip the 3d before he would openly seek it by an Ambassador from the Arch-Duke Albert Governor of Flanders felt the Pulse of the Court how it stood affected to a Peace with Spain which beat high towards it so as soon after it followed which as it was most beneficial to the English Nation so it had been to Spain if it had been as sincerely observed by King James as it was by Philip. Henry the 4th of France tho spited as 't was said that King James should not only come so peaceably but with universal Acclamations to the Crown of England whereas he laboured with such difficulty above seven Years to attain that of France and at last was forced to a dishonourable Submission to the Pope Clement VIII Yet being a Prince of great Prudence in Peace as well as fortunate and victorious in War sent Monsieur de Rosny Great Treasurer of France to renew the Treaty of Peace and Commerce formerly made between Queen Elizabeth and him which was without any difficulty done The King being thus at Peace Abroad and at Home not only in England but in Ireland as if the Wars expired there with Queen Elizabeth he not only pardoned the Earl of Tyrone the Head of that Rebellion but by Proclamation declar'd he was restor'd to the King's Favour and to be honourably used of all Men. But how pleasing soever the King 's coming to the Crown of England was to the English Nation it seems it was not so or something else to God for an horrible Plague greater than any since that in the Reign of Edward the 3d accompanied his coming in There were two Factions in England when the King came to the Crown distinguished by the Names of Puritans and Papists both dissenting from the Religion established in the Church of England the King hated those and wrote against these chiefly for their Doctrine of the Pope's Power of deposing Kings These received the King after different manners the Puritans had a huge Expectation of his Favour because he was bred up in their Doctrine and Discipline but were much deceived in it for he rarely mentioned them but with Detestation which he did not those of the Popish Religion However in January they obtained a Conference with the Church-Party at Hampton-Court where the King himself would be Moderator whilst most of the Nobility and Bishops were Spectators You need not doubt which Party prevail'd the Nobility and Bishops not only giving the King the Victory with the Epithets of The Solomon of the Age The most Learned but of being inspired But what Expectation soever the Puritans had of the King 's coming to the Crown the Papists had another Lesson taught them for tho the Popish Conspiracy against the Person of Queen Elizabeth ceased upon the Death of the Queen of Scots yet did not the Pope's Designs upon the Kingdom of England do so but Clement VIII in the Year 1600 sent Orders to his Emissaries in England that the Catholicks should admit none to succeed the Queen but one obedient to the Holy See and in Conformity hereunto Watson and Clark two Romish Priests joined in Cobhant's Conspiracy to have kept the King from coming to the Crown and were executed for it as Traitors but the Effects of the Pope's Instructions did not die with Clark and Watson as you 'll soon hear and upon the 24th of October 1603 a Proclamation was made for Quietness to be observed in Matters of Religion Notwithstanding the Rage of the Pestilence the first nine Months after the King 's coming to London all were Halcion-days Proclamations Pageants Feastings Creation of Lords and Knights Reception of Foreign Ambassadors erecting a Master of the Ceremonies after the Mode of France c. and in this time the Dignified Clergy and those who courted to be so with the Favourites at Court with whom the Civilians chimed in had so rooted their Doctrine of the King 's Absolute Power and that notwithstanding his Succession to the Crown of Scotland in the Life of his Mother he succeeded by inherent Birth-right and that Primogeniture is the Gift of God by the Law of Nature and that in his Person was reconciled all the Titles of our Saxon Danish and Norman Race of Kings that being propensly disposed to receive the Impressions they took such deep root in him that in all his Life after he would never with Patience hear any thing to the contrary however it was not long before he heard of it as you shall hear But we will stay a little and see how inconsistently these Flatterers jumbled an Absolute and Hereditary Monarchy together and how this King reconciled the Titles of the Saxon Danish and Norman Titles to the Crown For no Hereditary Monarch that ever reigned in this World but derived his Title from an Ancestor who had no Hereditary Right nor did ever any Hereditary King succeed but to govern by Laws and Constitutions which were established before he became King So however Absolute may be applicable to Conquerors yet it is inconsistent with Hereditary Kings especially in a Regular Monarchy as that of England is and those of old as of the Medes and Persians where the Will of the King alone could not alter the Laws and Constitutions of them And now let us see how King James came to claim his Crown by inherent Birth-right and how all the Saxon Danish and Norman Titles came to be reconciled in his Person It 's evident to me that tho only God can make an Heir and that tho Primogeniture be natural yet God in disposing Kingdoms is not obliged to it tho Grotius lib. 1. Tit. 11. de Jure Belli Pacis is pleased to say the Law of Nature is immutable by God himself but reserves unto himself the Prerogative of disposing Kingdoms without restraining the Succession of the King to Primogeniture or Hereditary Succession Here let us see in Epitome which you may read at large in Sir William Jones his History of the Succession of the Kings of England before and after the Conquest and the History of the Succession of the Crown of England from King Egbert to Henry the 8th printed in the Year 1690 where you will see that tho the Kings of England both before and after the Conquest succeeded in their Royal Families yet many more were not in the right Line than in it and tho before Caesar invaded Britain there was no other Government but Kingly yet Britain was divided into so many petty Kingdoms that tho it had not been barbarous it would have been as difficult to have wrote the History of the Succession of their Kings as to have wrote the History of the Succession of the Kings immediately after the Flood After the Roman Empire oppressed by its own Weight by the Division into Eastern and Western its intestine Jars and the over-flowing of barbarous Nations was so torn
unanswerable Reasons of a National Interest and the manifold Inconveniences the incorporating those Trades in a Company brought to the Navigation of the Nation both in the Foreign Vent of our Manufactures and in their Returns to the Ruin of infinite Artificers Sea-men and Shipwrights and to the Diminution of the King's Revenue Whereupon these Trades were declared free and have ever since continued so to the inestimable Benefit of this Nation But tho the Reasons in this Act extend to all other Beneficial Trades as to Turkey the East-Country and Hamburgh Trades and to Africa and the East-Indies yet all these Trades are monopolized into Companies exclusive to other Men as much to the Prejudice of the Nation as the making the Spanish Trade free was beneficial to it About this time the Clergy at least a Faction which stiled themselves the Clergy made an Attempt to try how far their Doctrine of Absolute Power in the King had taken root in him they had gained their Point so far as the King had declared his Command to the Commons as Absolute King and now they 'll see whether the King would assert it and the Case was this Arch-bishop Whitgift a Prelate of singular Piety and Humility died the last day of February in the first Year of the King and Doctor Richard Bancroft a Man of a rough Temper a stout Foot-ball-player as zealous an Assertor of the Rights of the Church of England or rather a Faction of Church-men who arrogated to themselves the Title as Julius the 2d was of the Papacy exhibited to the King and Council 25 Articles in the Name of all the Clergy of England called Articuli Cleri which were desired to be reformed in granting Prohibitions tho there were a Parliament and Convocation then sitting which I do not find had any hand in it This Exhibition as it ascribed an Absolute Power to the King so it struck directly at the Constitution of Parliaments the principal End of which is to redress Grievances and Abuses in the Nation and if the King's Council during the sitting of a Parliament shall ascribe to themselves this Power then the great End of Parliaments redressing Grievances and Abuses is in vain However Bancroft herein not only makes the King's Council to have a concurring Power with the Parliament but paramount to it by exhibiting these Articles in the sitting of a Parliament and Convocation but the Judges gave so clear and distinct an Answer to them all that the King did not think fit to meddle in them yet did not Bancroft rest here as you will hear hereafter The Articles and the Judges Answer to them you may read at large in Sir Coke's second Institute tit Articuli Cleri Whilst Bancroft was thus ascribing to the King this Absolute Power and exalting a Faction of Church-men above the true State of the Clergy which is one of the three States of the Nation and above the Nobility and Commonalty which are the other two The Popish Faction were plotting a Design not only to destroy the Church of England but the very Person of the King with the Nobility and Commons convened in Parliament which was to have been executed upon the fifth of November following the day on which the Parliament were to meet The Popish Party hoped and it may be not unreasonably that the King in regard of his Mother's Religion was not averse to theirs so that if he became not of their Church which in his Speech at the opening the Parliament he owns our mother-Mother-Church at least hoped to have their Religion tolerated whereas finding the King in his Speech after he had declaimed against the Heresies and Abuses crept into their Church and the Pope's having arrogated an Imperial Civil Power over Kings and Emperors by dethroning and decrowning them with his Foot and disposing of their Kingdoms and the Jesuits Practice of assassinating and murdering Kings if they be cursed by the Pope That so long as they maintained these they were not sufferable in the Kingdom From this time forward and it may be before a Popish Crew contrived how to bring in their Catholick Religion they cared not which way so it might be done At last it was agreed upon the opening of the Session of Parliament upon the 5th of November one part of the Conspirators should blow up the Lords House while the King Prince with the Nobility and Commons were in it having prepared all things in a readiness whilst another part should seize upon the Lady Elizabeth after Queen of Bohemia and proclaim her Queen But the Plot being discovered the Conspirators were defeated of both their Designs The Horror and Terror of this Conspiracy the Discovery whereof was industriously divulged and believed to be by the King 's great Wisdom and Care reconciled for a time all Differences between him and his Parliament and the Parliament to gratify the King the Clergy gave him four Subsidies at four Shillings in the Pound and the Temporality three Subsidies and â—ix Fifteenths which was threefold more than any Parliament in one Session gave Queen Elizabeth before that of the 35 Eliz. notwithstanding the Payment of her Father's Brother's and Sister's Debts her expelling the French out of Scotland the building and repairing the Navy Royal the Support of the Reformed in France the subduing the Rebellion in the North the Support of the Dutch in the Netherlands the Irish War and the Overthrow of the Spanish Armada in 88. The Parliament enacted the Oath of Allegiance which Bellarmine under the Name of Tortus wrote against and Andrews Bishop of Winton under the Name of Tortura Torti defended it The Parliament too ordained the Anniversary of the Fifth of November to be celebrated for a perpetual Thanksgiving-Day for the King and Kingdom 's Delivery from this Conspiracy All Heats about Prerogative and Privilege were now laid aside the Pulpits and our Universities rang with Declamations against the Heresies and Usurpations of the Church of Rome and now the King gave himself wholly to Hunting Plays Masques Balls and writing against Bellarmine and the Pope's Supremacy in arrogating a Power over Kings and disposing of their Kingdoms and thus the Case stood for four Years after wherein I scarce find any thing worth mentioning This and the next Year was almost wholly spent in Debates concerning the Uniting of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland which the King eanestly solicited and which ended only in Contests and Arguments for the House of Parliament refused to join with the King in it however the King obtained a Judgment in Westminster-Hall in a Case called Calvin's Case that the Post Nati in Scotland after the King's Assumption to the Crown of England were free to purchase and inherit in England But whilst the King was thus wallowing in Pleasure he wholly gave himself up to be governed by Favourites to whom he was above any other King of England except Henry the 8th excessively prodigal not only in Honours and Offices but of
Peron of the Papal Power of King-Killing and King-Deposing were only Brawls and Contentions and 〈◊〉 Learning on one side or the other A Power disclaimed by our Saviour when the Devil would have given him it and denied any such Power in this World even when the Jews were ready to crucify him John 18. 36. And as there were no Reasons for these Brawls so was the End of them Arrogance on the Popish Part to impose a foreign Power or Jurisdiction upon the King and Kingdom and as foolish on the King's Part it being exploded by the Nation and under the severest Penalty the asserting such a Power prohibited and how could the King by his Writings further secure himself and the Nation against it But it seems the King was in this more zealous for himself and the Preservation of his Inherent Birth-right to the Crown of England than for the Honour of God and our Saviour against the Pope's Usurpations other ways for in his Speech at the Opening the first Parliament of his Reign he calls the Church of Rome a 〈◊〉 Church and our Mother-Church and if they would lay aside their King-killing and King-deposing Doctrine and some Niceties but names them not he was content to meet them mid-way Does not the Pope exalt himself above God and is Antichrist i◠forbidding the Laity the Cup in the partaking the Sacrament a Christ's last Supper If any Man makes a Question of it I 'll demonstrate it by a better Syllogism than can be made up of Aristotle's Analyticks For whosoever shall forbid what another commands exalts himself above that other But the Pope forbids the Drinking of the Cup at the Sacrament to the Laity who are Christ's Members as well as the Priests And our Saviour commands the Cup with an Emphasis Drink ye All of it Therefore the Pope exalts himself above our Saviour and is Antichrist which was to be demonstrated and this Mutilation makes this the Pope's and not a Sacrament of our Saviour's Institution COROLLARY By the same Reason I say the Pope exalts himself above God in forbidding Marriage to the Priests For Marriage is an Institution of God in Paradise Gen. 2. and commanded by God Gen. 9. 1. and the Pope forbids the Marriage of Priests which St. Paul says is the Doctrine of Devils and it 's worthy Observation that the Pope makes Marriage to be a Sacrament yet denies it to Priests and our Saviour commands the Cup in the Sacrament of his last Supper to be drunk by all yet this is denied the Laity and only allowed to Priests I say Pope Julius the 2d in dispensing with Henry the 8th to marry his Brother Arthur's Wife exalted himself above God For whosoever shall dispense with or allow what another forbids exalts himself above that other But Julius dispensed with Henry's Marriage of his Brother's Wife And God forbids the Marriage of a Man's Brother's Wife Lev. 18. 16. Therefore Julius exalted himself above God which was to be demonstrated It 's true I do not find the Marriage of a Man's Sister's Daughter particularly forbidden by the Levitical Law yet by the 17th verse it is by inference forbidden and is abhorrent to Nature So that when Cambyses asked the Magi if it were not lawful to marry his Sister's Daughter they told him it was not yet like Flatterers they told him he might do what he pleased and Platina I think it is in the Life of Pope Boniface the 5th or Honorius exclaims against the Emperor Heraclius his marrying his Sister's Daughter as an Impiety scarce ever heard of yet three Popes successively dispensed with Philip the 2d Philip the 3d and Philip the 4th Kings of Spain marrying with their own Nieces viz. their Sisters Daughters It were endless to enumerate the Doctrines of the Church of Rome how dishonourable they are to God and his sacred Laws I 'll give Instances only in two 1. Their Invocation of Saints after Death many of which are of their own making thereby attributing to them a concurring Power with God in his Omniscience which is a robbing God of his Honour and if Saints after Death be not Omniscient it were in vain to pray to them The other is dispensing with Mens Promises and their own tho they have bound themselves to the Performance of them by an Oath whereby the Popes render themselves Enemies of Mankind and Humane Society for these are founded in Truth and Mens mutual Performance of their Promises That this for several hundreds of Years hath been practised by the Popes upon those Princes and Subjects whom they please to call Hereticks when the Popes are greater is well known to those conversant in their Histories I 'll give but one Instance of the Liberty the Popes take to themselves herein Upon the Death of Pope Marcellus 2d Ann. 1555. the Cardinals in the Conclave before they proceed to the Election of another Pope mutually swore That whosoever should be chosen should call a Synod in six Years and not make more than 4 Cardinals in two Years after the Election and Paul the 4th was chosed See the Council of Trent Anno 1555. Some small time after this Election Paul entred the Conclave to declare his Intentions of a Promotion of Cardinals and the Cardinal of St. James's pressed to him and put him in mind of his Oath before his Election but the Pope thrust the Cardinal back and told him This was to bind the Pope's Authority that it is an Article of Faith that the Pope cannot be bound much less bind himself that to say otherwise was manifest Heresy from which he did absolve those who spake it because he thought they did not speak obstinately but if any should say the same again he would give Order the Inquisition should proceed And this being spoken in the Conclave was in Cathedra and infallible and never since retracted by him or any other Pope These are the Heresies in the Church of Rome for which Men must be slaughtered and burnt and for not believing them against the Evidence of a Man's Senses to the contrary and against the Nature of a Sacrament That the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament after Consecration is Christ's organical Body and Blood This is that true and Mother-Church which the King would meet mid-way if it would let him and his Inherent Birth-right alone This is that Prince who to prosecute these Brawls and to wallow in sensual Pleasures neglected the foreign and domestick Affairs of his Kingdom only Great in making himself little and not beloved at home and contemptible and dishonoured abroad A Prince who squandred away the sacred Patrimony of the Crown amongst Flatterers and Favourites thereby becoming not able to maintain the Honour of the Nation abroad and neglecting the Encrease and Repair of his Navy-Royal not only rendred the Nation in an unsettled and dangerous Peace at home but notwithstanding the Treaty with the Dutch for Licence to fish upon the Coasts of England and Scotland suffered
of Church and State and when the Commons questioned Mountague for them he took part with him against them alledging he had taken the Business into his own Hands whenas he took Mountague into his Power to protect him from the Justice of them and his Metropolitan but never took other Notice of Mountague's Business Secondly He took upon him in Compliance with a foreign Prince and an Enemy to the Nation to dispense with the Laws against Romish Priests which by the Constitutions of the Nation he could not do Thirdly He broke his Word with the Parliament concerning the Execution of these Laws within a Day or two at most after he gave it Fourthly He made War upon the King of Spain without any Declaration of War whereas just Princes demand Reparations for Wrongs done and endeavour to compound their Differences amicably and in case of Refusal then to proclaim War and this not only against his Father's Counsel but the Advice of his Father's Council Fifthly Without the Advice of his Council he lent the French a Fleet to subdue the Rochellers and the Reformed in France tho they had given him no Offence and the French King had perfidiously broke his Promise with his Father and himself in denying Mansfield's Army to land Sixthly He had against the Advice of his Father broke the Bonds of Amity between him and his Subjects by the Dissolving of the Parliament whereby he lost the only Means to support him in his War against Spain And now Buckingham stood ready primed to engage him in a War against France yet in this deplorable state no free Counsel must enter the King's Ears which must be open to nothing but what Buckingham and Laud infused a sad Presage to what follow'd as well upon Buckingham and Laud as upon the King himself Now let 's see the Success of the War against the Spaniards Besides the Fleet designed against Cales the King fitted up another Fleet in conjunction with the Dutch States to block up Dunkirk as well as he had lent a Fleet in conjunction with the Dutch to subdue the Rochellers but this being sent out to Sea about the middle of October the most perilous Season of all the Year for great Ships to put to Sea a Consideration either not understood or not regarded by our Land-Admiral Buckingham a terrible Storm arose which separated and dispersed both Fleets so as gave the Dunkirkers an Opportunity to put to Sea with 22 Men of War and 4000 Land-Soldiers This alarm'd the Council lest these should land either in England or Ireland whenas in neither any Provision was made to oppose them especially in England where the Earl of Warwick had Orders to dismiss 300 of the Trained-bands of Essex that were to secure Harwich however it 's fit here to mention the noble Act of that Earl in building Langard-Fort on Suffolk side to secure the Entrance into the Port the most famous of all the English Eastern Coast and which is yet continued to this day But the Season of the Year was such as prevented this Fear for I find no other Account of the Design of the Dunkirk Fleet. Nor had the Design upon Cadiz more Success than that upon Dunkirk for a furious Storm arose in their Passage it may be the same which separated the English and Dutch before Dunkirk which so scattered the Fleet that of 80 no less than 50 were missing for 7 Days This was but the Beginning of the Misfortunes of this miserable Expedition for the Confusion of Orders was such as the Officers and Soldiers scarce knew who to command or whom to obey so that when the Fleet arrived at Cadiz a Conquest which would have paid the Charge of the Voyage and to the Honour of the English offered it self for the Spanish Shipping in the Bay of Cadiz lay unprovided of Defence so as the surprising them was both easy and feasible but this was neglected and when the Opportunity was lost the Army landed and Sir John Burroughs took a Fort from the Spaniard but was forced to quit it again for the Soldiers finding therein great store of Spanish Wines so debauched themselves that had the Spaniards known the Condition they were in they might have destroyed them all Hereupon they were put on board again and the General my Lord Wimbleton designed to stay 20 Days to wait for the Spanish Plate-Fleet which was daily expected from the West-Indies but the evil Condition of the Fleet by reason of a general Contagion enforced the General to abandon the Hopes of so great a Prize so having effected nothing he returned home with Dishonour in November following This gave no small Occasion of Clamour that a Fleet so well provided and mann'd should land their Men in an Enemies Country and return without some honourable Action but where the Fault lay could not be found out nor was any punished for failing to perform his Duty Yet the General for some time was not admitted into the King's Presence and some of the Colonels of his Army accused him and some Sea-men aggravated the Accusation Hereupon the General was examined before the Council and he laid the Fault upon others in the Fleet who let the King of Spain's Ships pass without fighting them according to Order and they on the other hand said they had no Order from the General to fight But how miserable soever the Success of this Fleet was yet it must not be in the King's Judgment ascribed to any Improvidence either in the setting forth or Conduct after it But to God's Pleasure who is the Lord of Hosts and unto whose Providence and good Pleasure his Majesty doth and shall submit himself and all his Endeavours not to give that Success as was desired See the King's Declaration for Dissolving his second Parliament which you may read in Rushworth fol. 412. But since the King had no better Success against the King of Spain by open Force upon the Return of the Fleet he gave strict Command That no Subject of the Realm of England should have any Trade or Commerce with any of the Dominions of the King of Spain or of the Arch-Dutchies in Flanders upon pain of Confiscation of both Ships and Goods that should be found upon Voyage of Trade into any of their said Dominions But hereby the Loss manifoldly fell more upon the English than Spaniards for these Trades above all others were the most beneficial and gainful to the English and by the Peace which the King's Father made with Spain and the free Trade which the English thereby enjoyed in Spain and Flanders the Nation became doubly more enriched than in the long Reign of Queen Elizabeth which was double as long as K. James's after he had made this Peace Thus as the King by breaking of the Parliament disabled himself of Means for carrying on the War against Spain so by this Inhibition of the English to trade with Spain he disabled his Subjects from giving him such Assistance as otherwise
the narrow Passages between the Salt-pits those that escaped were lost in the Salt-Pits and Ditches and the Crowd was so great in passing a Bridg that many were drown'd in the River yet in this Confusion and Adversity the Bravery of the English appear'd for a few having past the Bridg the French following the English rallied and faced about to charge the French who cowardly retreated over the Bridg. Except this little Action yet as great in Fame as any other the English Nation never received like Dishonour as in this loose and unguided Conduct of this lascivious Duke in this Expedition of whom it may be truly said he was Mars ad Opus Veneris Martis ad Arma Venus Home he comes and finds things as much in Disorder here as he had left them in Dishonour abroad the Prisons full of the most eminent Gentry of England by a special Warrant from the King for refusing to lend as they were assess'd by the Commissioners for the Loan and Bail denied them upon return of their Corpus's An Army was kept on foot when this Expedition had consumed all that which should have paid them which had not been done in 80 Years before the People fearing this was more to enslave than defend them In this Confusion Sir Cotton's Advice is called for by the King and Council what 's to be done who in a long and well composed Speech beginning at Charles the 5th sets forth the Design of the House of Austria to attain an universal Monarchy in these Western Parts of Europe How the Design was first check'd by Henry the 8th against Charles but more by Queen Elizabeth against his Son Philip the 2d they following a free Council and thereby winning the Hearts of a loving People ever found Hands and Money for all Occasions That the only way to raise Money speedily and securely was the Via Regia by Parliament other ways were unknown untrodden rough tedious and never succeeded well That Religion lies nearest the Conscience of the Subject and that there was a Jealousy of some Practices against it and that tho the Duke of Bucks had broken the Spanish Match out of a Religious Care that the Articles demanded might endanger the State of the Reformed Religion yet being an Actor in the French Match as hard if not worse passed than those of Spain Sir Robert goes on and enumerates the Miscarriages in these two last Years the Waste of the King's Revenue the Pressures upon the publick Liberty of the Subjects in commanding their Goods without Consent in Parliament imprisoning their Persons without special Cause shewed and this made good against them by the Judges How to obviate these he leaves to the prudent Consideration of the Council but like old Sir Charles Harboard he wishes that the Duke might appear to be the first Adviser for calling a Parliament so that the People may be satisfied this Parliament should be called by the zealous Care and Industry of the Duke Now the Hopes of getting Money by calling the Parliament works more than the Laws of God or sacred Justice could do for upon the 29th of January Writs are issued out for the Assembling of a Parliament to meet the 17th of March following the Prison-Doors are opened for the imprisoned Gentry to go abroad the Arch-bishop the Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Lincoln who tho now in Disgrace was the first Raiser of Laud after Bishop of London and Arch-Bishop of Canterbury have Writs to 〈◊〉 in Parliament But see the Unstability of Resolutions not founded in Truth Justice or Prudence for the next Day after the Writs for summoning the Parliament were agreed the King January the 30th granted a Privy-Seal to Burlemach for 30000 l. to be returned to Sir William Balfour and John Daâ—bier for raising a thousand German Hâ—rse with Arms both for Horse and Foot to be sent into England February the 28th where was an Army already upon free Quarter and after grants a Commission to 23 Lords and others to raise Money upon Impositions or otherwise Thus things stood in the State before the Meeting of the Parliament Now let 's see how they stood in the Church Barnevelt having headed a Faction in Holland which called themselves Arminians and designing by them to have deposed the Prince of Orange lost his Head for it about four Years before now on the contrary the Arminian Faction here which called themselves the Church of England ascribed all Dominion to the absolute Power of the King The Principals of this Faction were Neal Bishop of Wâ—â—chester Laud Bishop of Bath and Welâ—s and Richard Mountague afterwards advanced to the Bishopricks of Chichester and Norwich this Faction was headed by the Duke At this time the Jesuits had taken a House at Clarkenwell designing to make a College of it who in a Letter to the Father Rector of the Jesuits at Brussels boast that they had planted the soveraign Drug Arminianism which they hoped would purge the Protestants from their Heresy and that it flourished and bore Fruit in a due Season and they proceeded by Counsel and Consideration how and when to work upon the Duke's Jealousy and Revenge and in that they gave the Honour to those who merit it which were the Church Catholicks they assured themselves they had made the Duke and the Parliament irreconcilable and that they have those of their Religion who stand continually at the Duke's Chamber to see who comes in and who goes out They glory how admirably in their Speech and Gestures they act the Puritans and the Cambridg Scholars shall find by woful Experience they can act the Puritans better than they have done the Jesuits That their Foundation is Arminianism that the Arminians and Projectors affect Mutation Having thus laid the Foundation for propagating their Religion the Jesuits next Care was for the State and in the first place they consider the King's Honour and Necessities and shew how the King may free himself of his Word as Lewis the 11th did and for greater Splendor and Lustre how he may raise a great Revenue and not be beholden to his Subjects which was by way of Excise which must be by a mercenary Army of Horse and Foot For the Horse they had made sure they should be Foreigners and Germans who would eat up the King's Revenue and spoil the Countries wheresoever they came tho they should be paid What Havock then will they make there when they get no Pay or are not duly paid they will do more Mischief than we hope the Army will do This mercenary Army of 2000 Horse and 20000 Foot was to be taken into pay before the Excise be settled In forming the Excise the Country is most likely to rise if the Mercenary Army subjugate the Country the Soldiers are to be paid out of the Confiscations they hope instantly to dissolve Trade and hinder the Building of Ships by devising probable Designs and putting the State upon Expeditions as that of Cadiz and in taking
Magna Charta is such a Fellow that he will have no Soveraign I wonder this Soveraign was not in Magna Charta or in the Confirmations of it If we grant this by Implication we give a Soveraign Power above all these Laws Power in Law is taken for a Power with Force The Sheriff shall take the Power of the County what is meant here only God knows It is repugnant to our Petition grounded on Acts of Parliament Our Predecessors could never endure a Salvo jure suo no more than the Kings of old could endure for the Church Salvo honore Dei Ecclesiae We must not admit this and to qualify it is impossible Let us hold our Privileges according to the Law that Power which is above this is not fit for the King or People to have it disputed further I had rather for my part have the Prerogative acted and I my self lie under it than have it disputed Sir Thomas Wentworth said If we admit of this Addition we leave the Subject worse than we found him and we shall have little Thanks for our Labour when we come home Let us leave all Power to his Majesty to punish Malefactors but these Laws are not acquainted with Soveraign Power We desire no new thing nor do we offer to trench upon his Majesty's Prerogative We may not recede from our Petition neither in part or whole Mr. Selden said Let us not go hastily to the Question if there be any Objections let any propound them and let others answer them as they think good If it the Saving hath no Reference to our Petition what does it here I am sure others will say it hath Reference and so must we how far it does exceed all Examples of former times no Man can shew the like Then he shews the manifold Statutes besides Magna Charta wherein is no such Saving And whereas Mr. Speaker said The King was our Heart and ever shall be but then Mr. Selden said We spake of the King's Prerogative and we are bound to say so but when we speak of our Rights we are not to be imprisoned Saving but by the King 's Soveraign Power Say my Lands without any Title be seized into the King's hand and I bring a Petition of Right and I go to the King and say I do by no means seek your Majesty's Title and after that I bring a Petition or Monstrance de droit setting forth my own Right and Title and withal set down a Saving that I leave entire his Majesty's Right it would be improper Then he cites many Statutes wherein there are Savings but no ways pertinent to this which you may read at large in Rushworth ' s Collections and Franklin ' s Annals And in truth it troubles me I am forced to curtail this not only in Mr. Selden but other Noble Persons by reason the Treatise would swell to a greater Bulk than I designed it The Lords afterwards had a Conference with the Commons to fortify their Addition managed by my Lord Keeper which was answered by Mr. Mason And after that the Commons desired another Conference with the Lords and ordered Serjeant Glanvile to argue the legal part of the Petition and Sir Henry Martin the rational part of it which they did so well that at a Conference May 26. 1628 between both Houses the Lord Keeper from the Lords told the Commons the Lords agreed with them in omnibus of their Petition only in the Alteration of two Words viz. Means for Pretext and for the Word unlawful not warrantable by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm The Houses thus happily accorded the Petition with the foresaid Amendments were read two several times in the House of Commons and then upon the Question voted to be engrossed and read a third time and the House to sit in the Afternoon till it was engrossed and read and ordered to be presented to the King in which there was not one Negative And the Bill for the Subsidies was read a second time and committed and upon Wednesday the 28th the Lords and Commons had a Conference about the Manner of Delivery of the Petition and Sir Edward Coke reported that their Lordships were agreed That no Addition or Preface be used to the King but that the Petition be preferred to his Majesty by the Command of the Lords and Commons and that his Majesty by be desired to the Content of his People he would give his Gracious Answer in full Parliament In all these Transactions the King was very uneasy fain he would have the Money yet was unwilling to answer the Petition The House was aware of this and therefore agreed the Petition before they would pass the Money-Bill Upon the 12th of April the King by Secretary Cook acquainted them of the Necessity of Supply and expected some Fruit of what was so happily begun but finding a Stop beyond all Expectation of so good a Beginning the Secretary was therefore commanded to tell them That without any further or unnecessary Delay they proceed in this Business and bid them therefore take heed that they force him not to make an unpleasing end of that which was so well begun And two Days after the Secretary quickned the Business of this Supply again Upon the 2d of May the King sent a Message by Secretary Cook That as he would rank himself amongst the best of Kings wherein he has no Intention to invade or impeach our lawful Liberties so he would have them to match themselves with the best of Subjects not by encroaching upon that Soveraignty or Prerogative which God had put into his hands for their Good and that this Sessions of Parliament must continue no longer than Tuesday come Seven-night at the farthest and that his Royal Intention is to have another Session at Michaelmas next for the perfecting such things as cannot now be done Now let 's see how unwillingly the King was brought to pass the Petition Upon the 16th of May Secretary Cook pressed the House to rely upon the King's Word and that the King promised to govern them by the Laws and that they shall enjoy as much Freedom as ever and that this might be debated in the House but Sir John Elliot answered that the Proceedings in a Committee is more honourable and advantagious to the King and House with whom the House agreed In the Debate of this Committee some were for the Bill to rest but Sir Edward Coke ' s Reasons prevailed to the contrary Was it ever known said he that General Words were a sufficient Satisfaction to particular Grievances Was ever a Verbal Declaration of the King Verbum Regni When Grievances be the Parliament is to redress them Did ever Parliament rely on Messages They put up Petitions of their Grievances and the King answered them The King's Answer is very gracious but what is the Law of the Realm that 's the Question I put no Diffidence in his Majesty the King must speak by Record and in
of the Bishop of Lincoln's Life and within less than three Years after he became Arch-bishop got the Bishop of Lincoln fined and imprisoned and his Estate to be sequestred by an Order of the Star-Chamber and at last acknowledged he had never read the Commission by which he acted These things see in the Bishop of Litchfield par 2. fol. 125. tit 119. Tho Laud had never read the Commission by which he acted yet so zealous was he for the Execution of the Sequestration of the Bishop of Lincoln's Estate that he sends this Warrant to the King's Solicitor I think Sir John Banks It is his Majesty's Pleasure that you prepare a Commission to the Prebendaries of the Collegiate Church of Westminster authorizing them to keep their Audits and other Capitular Meetings at their usual times and to treat and compound with the Tenants for Leases and to pass the same accordingly chuse Officers and confirm and execute all other lawful Acts for the good and benefit of the College and said Prebendaries And to take out the Common or Charter-Seal for sealing such Leases and Grants as will be agreed upon by the Sub-Dean and the major part of the Prebendaries and also to pass all the Premisses under the Title of the Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Westminster during the Suspension of the Bishop of Lincoln from the Deanary of Westminster and for doing whereof this shall be your Warrant Lambeth-House 22d of November 1637. W. Cant. See Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 25. a. Whether the King ever granted any such Warrant to W. Cant. non constat for the King never speaks to his Subjects but either personally in Parliament or under the Broad-seal which here does not appear besides all Warrants of Courts are signed by the Seals of the Courts and executed by their proper and sworn Officers neither of which were W. Cant. or the King's Solicitor Yet at this rate was this Nation ridden during the Regency of W. Cant. This Phaeton thus mounted up on high being the first Peer of England was yet higher in the King's Favour than Richlieu was with the French King But as the Temper of these Princes and their Favourites were different so had they different Fates Lewis was steady and true to his Word from whence he acquired the Title of Just Charles fickle and unstable easily put upon things by his Favourites and as suddenly altering them and doing quite contrary from whence it was that Lewis supported the Cardinal in all his Shocks of adverse Fortune and to the Indignation of his Mother whereas Charles in the Adversity of their Fortunes gave up Laud and all his Favourites as a Sacrifice to their Enemies As the Fates of these Favourites were different so were their Parts Richlieu's High Generous and the ablest Statesman of the Age Laud's Pedantick and Narrow After the marrying the Lady Rich to the Earl of Devonshire he spent his time in seeking Preferment at Court and in setting up Factions in the University of Oxford for promoting Arminianism Richlieu was a Constant Assertor of the Privileges of the Gallican Church and a Hater of the Jesuits who bring in Innovations and exalt a Papal Power above them whereas Laud not only brought Innovations into the Church of England but was the Head of the Arminian Party under whose Banners the Popish Party sought to undermine and destroy the Church of England Richlieu laid the Foundation of the French King's Greatness by Sea and Land Laud put King Charles upon such Ways as proved the Ruin of the King Himself and the Church and State of England But before we proceed herein let us stay a little and consider the unhappy State of the Education of the Youth of England in Grammer Schools and Universities The End designed by God and Nature by Instruction of Youth is to honour and worship God and how to subsist and converse after they become Men for without the latter it will be impossible to perform the former I say this latter no way conduces to the End by breeding Youth up in Grammar-Schools and our Universities for no Man lives out of Society and Commerce and every Man stands in need of being supplied by another in things he stands in want of so that the great End by Education of Youth is to instruct Youth how to supply another so as to be able by another to supply himself of such things as he stands in need of but this is utterly neglected in Grammar-Schools and our Universities and yet double more are bred up in Grammar-Schools and our Universities than the Revenues of the Church can maintain and this Breeding fits Youth for no Conversation and Business but only puffs them up with a Conceit of their Learning when they understand not that of all Mankind they are the most unlearned and unfit for any Business The Supernumeraries of these unhappy Men who can get no Maintenance in the Church and by their Breeding are of no use in Church or State yet desire to live but can get no Living but by nourishing Factions against those who are preferred in the Church and State Poor Men they know no better and if this be taken from them they know not how to live From whence it follows that unless these Supernumeraries be restrained in their Education which cannot be but by rooting out of Grammar-Schools and the chopping Logick in our Universities whereby I say no rational Proposition in any Art or Science was ever inferred from Aristotle Descartes or any since these Supernumeraries will as necessarily nourish Factions in England as the Jesuits do here and in the rest of Christendom Many of these Supernumeraries got their Maintenance by being Chaplains to Noble-men and Gentlemen but in both they regarded more the Humour of the People where they were Lecturers and Disposition of their Patrons and Patronesses where they were Chaplains than the Liturgy of this Church The Diocess of London was too contracted to restrain the boundless Ambition of this Bishop for the last Parliament was no sooner dissolved but Laud presented the King with Considerations for the better setling Church-Government in both Provinces of York as well as Canterbury The 4th of these was That a special Charge be given against frequent and unworthy Ordinations but Latet Anguis in Herba None shall be worthy but Arminians The 5th was That special Care be had of our Lecturers in every Diocess which by reason of Pay are the Peoples Creatures and blow the Bellows of their Sedition But if the Bishop will not let them do this they know no other way to live and willingly would not starve For abating the Peoples Power the 2d Consideration is That every Bishop in his Diocess ordain that every Lecturer do read in his Surplice Divine Service before his Lecture which if he does 't is twenty to one those that pay the Lecturer will pay no more What then becomes of the Lecturer for there 's no other
Protestation wherein they Promise Vow and Protest in the Presence of God to maintain the true Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England and according to their Duty and Allegiance to maintain and defend his Majesty's Royal Person and Estate the Power and Privilege of Parliament and Liberties of the Subjects and to preserve the Union and Peace between the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland but herein was the Difference between the Scots and English the Scots would improve their Covenant and establish it in England but the English scarce ever after care for their Protestation However the Commons prevail with the Lords to take it and then impose it upon the Nation upon the Penalty of being deemed Malignants and Disaffected The King little pleased with what he had done and less with what the Houses had done without him follows the Scots into Scotland and there cajoles the Covenanters with all Courtship imaginable makes Lesley the Scots General Earl of Leven and confers other Honours upon the Covenanters calls a Parliament and consents to the Extirpation of the Hierarchy and establishes Presbytery as fully as the Kirk of Scotland could desire The Scots at present promise all Duty and Obedience to him but how well the King found it in a short time will appear Whilst the King was thus busied in Scotland a horrible and hellish Massacre was perpetrated in Ireland by the Irish upon the English wherein it 's computed above 200000 Protestants Men Women and Children were butcher'd after which followed an universal Rebellion excepting in Dublin Londonderry and Inniskillen which was headed by the Pope's Nuncio a most proper Head for such a Body Yet so intent were the Factions in England and Scotland in establishing their Designs that little care was had of the miserable Relicks of the Protestants in Ireland It appears evident to me that Richlieu's Scarlet was deep dy'd in the Blood of the poor English in this Massacre for these Reasons 1. That the Scots who at this time were Pensioners to France were not medled with in their Lives and Fortunes as you may see in Sir Richard Baker f. 315. a b. 2. The King being in Scotland when he heard of the Massacre of the English and Rebellion of the Irish he moved the Parliament of Scotland then sitting for a speedy Relief to the English which they refus'd And it 's strangely observable That tho the Massacre and Rebellion in Ireland brake out the 23d of October yet the King did not proclaim them Rebels till the first of January and then by Proclamation gave a strict Command that no more than forty of them should be printed and that none of them should be published till his Majesty's Pleasure was further signified Upon the King's going into Scotland the Parliament prorogued themselves to a certain Day But the Commons appointed a Committee to prepare Business against their next Meeting yet send Spies to observe all the King's Actions and after the King 's Return to London which was upon the 25th of November 1641 the House of Commons upon the 5th of December make a Remonstrance of all the King's Miscarriages abroad and of the Grievances and Illegalities of his Ministers at home from the beginning of his Reign and that the King might be sure to see it as well as hear of it they print and publish it The King not being used to such Language was stung to the quick by the Commons Declaration and to retaliate it in Act upon the third of January enters the House of Commons and demands five of their Members to be tried for High Treason for holding Correspondence with the Scots Than which he could not have done a more imprudent Act for by it he unravelled all that he had done in Scotland by involving the Scots in the same Crime But the Members had their Agents in the King 's most secret Councils and had notice of the King 's coming before and so the five Members were withdrawn This Act of the King did not only set the House in a Flame and put the City into Tumults but brought Petitions from Buckingham-shire where Mr. Hambden one of the Five Members was Knight that the Privileges of Parliament might be secured and Delinquents brought to condign Punishment All this while poor Ireland lay bleeding The King as unstable in his Resolutions as inconsiderate in his Actions retracts all he had done and promises not to do so again But to no purpose for the Members resolve not to trust his Royal Word Prerogative and absolute Will and Pleasure and therefore will tear the Power of the Militia from him Rather than suffer this tho upon the Pretence of Tumults the King resolves to leave London But before the King left London my Lord Mayor Sir Richard Gurney Sir George Whitmore Sir Henry Garoway and other principal Citizens waited upon the King and engaged if he would stay they would guard him with 10000 Men if occasion were and told him If he went he would leave the City open for the Members to do as they pleased and that they were sure to be first undone the King told them he was resolved Then Sir Henry Garoway said Sir I shall never see you again However his Eldest Son Mr. William Garoway a worthy Gentleman who yet lives went with the King and followed him in all his Wars The worthy Citizens proved true Prophets for soon after the King left London the Members imprisoned my Lord Mayor Sir Henry Garoway Sir George Whitmore and all others whom they suspected would be faithful to the King and then in London began to assume the Power of the Militia After the King left London he went to York and from thence went towards Hull but is shut out of the Town by Sir John Hotham whom the King proclaims Traitor and now before it came to Sword and Pistol Men began a War with their Pens And herein it is observable that the Writers for the King chiefly maintained his Cause out of Sir Coke's Pleas of the Crown which by Order of the King's Council was upon Sir Edward's Death-Bed seized as dangerous and seditious and I do not find any who wrote for the Parliament ever used any one Topick out of it to justify their Cause tho it and Sir Edward's other Books of the Comment upon Magna Charta and Jurisdiction of Courts were printed by Order of the House of Commons and by them petitioned that the King would deliver the Originals to Sir Robert Coke Sir Edward's Heir Whilst things were in this Hurly-burly in England Portugal and Catalonia revolt from the Spaniard which as it was a mighty Blow to Spain so it much conduced to the Advancing the Designs of Cardinal Richlieu in France In England things could not hold long at this Stay but upon the 22d of August the King comes to Nottingham and hastily sets up his Standard there and invites all his loving Subjects to come to his Assistance against the Rebels
I cannot prove negatively that my Lord Chancellor did not first propound the King's Marriage with the Infanta of Portugal yet it seems to me reasonable he did not for these Reasons I never heard of any Discourse of this Match before the Arrival of the Queen-Mother in England or if any were it 's probable that Monsieur Courtin had this in his Instructions as well as that of moving the King not to abandon Portugal for both these tend to the same end and the French King all his Reign after sought to attain his Ends by Women as well as other Ways Nor can it be believed that the Prince of Portugal now engaged in War against Spain should pay the Queen's Portion 400000 l. I believe he did what he could give up Tangier and Bombay to the King which last Place he leased to the East-India Company for 10 l. per Annum but the Money was paid by the French King Though the Factions had such ill Success with previous Swearing which every one imposed upon the Nation when it was uppermost and which no Man regarded when another succeeded yet upon the Restoration of the King the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which latter was only imposed upon certain Sorts of Men and as my Lord Verulam says sinks deep into the Conscience and was therefore interpreted by Queen Elizabeth in her Injunctions which were after confirmed by Act of Parliament were imposed upon all sorts of People and the Refusers looked upon as Enemies to the King and Favourers of the late Times And tho the Convention sate but from the 25th of April 1660 to the 29th of December following yet by this time the outward Face of almost all the Nation was quite changed the Cavalier Party under the Persecution of the late times lived quietly upon that part of their Estates which was permitted them after their Compositions and the Governing Factions put on a Countenance of Godliness and Sobriety whereas in the Jollity of the King's Restoration all sorts of Men even the Factions endeavoured to imitate the profuse Prodigality and Luxury of the Court which scarce entertained any but upon those Terms To humour the King the Publick Theaters were stuffed with most Obscene Actions and Interludes and the more Obscene pleased the King the better who graced the opening of them with his Presence at the first Notice of a new Play In this State the Convention was dissolved and a Parliament met the eighth of May 1661. where that they might outvy the Convention in Loyalty in the first Chapter they make Words to compass or imagine any Bodily Harm Imprisonment or Restraint upon the Body of the King or to Depose him or levy War against him to be High-Treason And if any shall any ways affirm the King to be a Heretick or Papist shall be incapacitated to hold any Ecclesiastical Civil or Military Imployment And that it shall be a Premunire in any to say The Long Parliament begun in November 1640 is not dissolved or that there lies any Obligation upon any one from any Oath to endeavour a Change of Government either in Church or State or that one or both Houses of Parliament have a Legislative Power and declare the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant to be an unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subject against the Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of the Nation And Chap. 5. declare against Tumultuary petitioning the King or Parliament And Chap. 6. declare the sole Right of the Militia to be in the King This Parliament upon the thirtieth of July was adjourned to the twentieth of November This being but an Adjournment and so the Act of the Houses for as yet the King did not exercise his Prerogative of Proroguing them which hereafter you will see him very prodigal of I do not find that this Adjournment was made that the King might better proceed in his Bargain and Sale of Dunkirk to the French Yet I do say that before the Parliament met it was as I remember in September that the Bargain and Sale was perfected and Dunkirk put into the Power of the French But neither the Sale of Dunkirk without nor the keeping up a standing Army within called the King's Guards after it was disbanded and paid off by the Covention nor the King's Manner of Life could any ways abate the Loyalty of this Parliament to the King and keep him they would whatever came of it And to all the Provisions for Security of his Person and Power they will add that to keep him in which the Rump in its last Breath did to keep him out viz. To swear to keep him out And therefore the Parliament Chap. 2. made the Corporation-Oath to be taken by all the Members of Corporations viz. I A. B. do declare and believe that it is not Lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King And that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those who are commissioned by him So help me God This I think is one of the first Laws that ever was made to swear to Opinions and Belief And sure if Swearing would determine Controversies and Beliefs all Learning Reasoning and Instruction would be at an end and he that swears most is the best Logician and the Godliest Man We will therefore consider the Nature of an Oath and those who are to take this Oath If we consider Man and other Sensitive Creatures in their Creation and Generation they were all passive and they were created and generated without any Act of their own Will or the Counsel or Concurrence of any Creature but of a Divine and Omnipotent Power and by a Providence and Prescience not less wise and good than the Power was Omnipotent they had Food and other Means for their Continuance in this World provided before they were created or generated But though God without the Act of the Will of any Creature did make Man and other Sensitive Creatures by an inimitable Power which he communicated to no Creature and by an unscrutable Wisdom and Goodness did provide for them before they were made or generated yet did he not in vain make them Organical Bodies endued with Life Sense and Motion so that after they were made they might seek food which God had before provided for them and preserve themselves from other Creatures which might be hurtful to them As Sensation is naturally common to Man and other Sensitive Creatures so are the Passions of Love Fear Hatred and Desire viz. Love of those things which conduce to their Welfare and Preservation Fear of those things which are hurtful to them accompanied with an Hatred of them and a Desire of generating their Like in other Bodies Besides these Attributes common to other Creatures God endued Man with an Intellectual and Reasonable Soul which is proper to Man exclusive to other Creatures and made all things in this our Habitable World for the Use of
of his Majesty's Subjects who are Dissenters in Matters of Religion from the Church of England And a Bill passed the House accordingly but was stopt in the House of Lords Causa patet the dead Weight joining with the Caballing Party But whatever the Commons thought of the King 's Dispensing Power in England Lauderdale the fifth in the Cabal in England was of another Opinion in Scotland for in the second Parliament c. 1. held by him he gets an Act declaring That by Virtue of the King's Supremacy the ordering the Government of the Church does properly belong to his Majesty and Successors as an inherent Right of the Crown and that he may enact and emit such Constitutions Acts and Orders concerning Church-Administrations Persons Meetings and Matters as he in his Royal Wisdom shall think fit c. any Law Act or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding And that he might not be less active in Scotland than his Brother Clifford was in England and Buckingham and Arlington were in Holland being armed with these other Powers he made all sorts of People depose upon Oath their Knowledg of the Persons of Dissenters not Popish Meetings in the Exercise of their Worship upon Penalty of Fining Imprisonment Banishment and Transportation to be sold for Slaves imprisoning all outed Ministers who shall preach out of their Families till they give Security of 5000 Marks Scot not to do the same again every Hearer being a Tenant to pay 25l Scot and Cotter 12 toties quoties they shall offend and that it shall be Death for any to preach in Fields or Houses where any are without doors and 500 Marks Reward for any to secure such dead or alive and gave Orders That every Man for himself and all under him should give Bond not to go to Field-Meetings and to inform against pursue and deliver up all outed Ministers to Judgment The Execution of these Orders was not by legal Officers but by an Army of Highland Robbers who quartered upon the Country so that it may be a Question whether the French King did not take his Measures in his Dragoon-Reformation by the ground-work laid by Lauderdale But his Grace which it seems did work irresistibly did not stay here for his Highland Army which consisted of eight or nine thousand Men not only lived upon Free Quarter upon all sorts of the King 's peaceable Subjects but in most places levied great Sums of Money under the Notion of Dry Quarters they had only regard to the Duke 's private Animosities for the most part of the Places where they quartered and destroyed had not been guilty of Field-Conventicles The King's Subjects were denounced Rebels and Captions issued out for seizing their Persons for not entring into Bond That neither they nor any under them shall go to Field-Conventicles and the Nobility and Gentry were disarmed who had ever been faithful to the King and assisted in suppressing Field-Conventicles Indictments were delivered in by the King's Advocate in the Evening to be answered next Morning upon Oath otherwise they were to be reputed guilty These and many more of this kind in the Matters relating to Lauderdale's Administration of Affairs in Scotland were represented to the King and that by his Command and are in Lauderdale's and his Lady's Impeachment which are all in Print Notwithstanding all this it was this Lauderdale who had procured an Act of Parliament to raise 20000 Foot and 2000 Horse to march into England to serve the King upon all Occasions And tho the Duke to prevent the Fame of his Actions arriving in England had by a Proclamation forbid all Subjects to depart the Kingdom without Licence yet the Noise of his Actions flew every where in England not less than the Censures of the Star-Chamber and High Commission in Laud's Regency did in Scotland and in due time the Duke shall hear of them Can any Man now believe That the King by his Declaration of Indulgence intended any Benefit to the Dissenters in England whilst Lauderdale without doubt by his Order was acting these things in Scotland The House of Commons could not at first step forget all the Loyalty they before profest to the King nor yet would they own the Dutch War and therefore they voted the King 1238750 l. to supply the King 's extraordinary Occasions but before they would let this Bill slip through their Fingers they tack'd a Bill to it by which no Papist should have any publick Employment This Bill catch'd my Lord Treasurer Clifford the first in the Cabal who was forced to resign his Treasurer's Place or renounce Popery which he would not do his Pensioners not being against it hoping thereby to get the Places which the Popish Party held and even my Lord Chancellor Ashley from Delenda Carthago now sets up for the Country Party against the Designs of the Cabal so moultry are all Designs which are not cemented in Justice and Honour The King having got the Bill for the Money the further Sitting of the Parliament became uneasy to him whereupon the Parliament was adjourned till the 20th and after to the 27th of October viz. 1673. During this Recess there were three Sea-Fights between the English French and Dutch Prince Rupert Admiral in all which the French stood aloof looking on whilst the English and Dutch battered one another only Monsieur de Martell for engaging was recalled checked and dismissed As the English thrived no better by Sea so neither did the French by Land for first the Elector of Brandenburg then the Emperour and at last the King or Queen Regent of Spain apprehensive of the Danger common to them all of the French subduing the Dutch Provinces entred into a mutual League for their Defence and by their Conjunction the Prince of Orange recovered many of the Vpland Towns in almost as little Time as the French had taken them In this state the Swede now broke loose from the Triple League whereby he opened the Gap to let in this Confusion and became a Pensioner to France and proposes a Treaty of Peace to be held at Cologn and thither the King the Emperor the French King and the King of Spain send their Plenipotentiaries to treat of it The French King's Propositions were so insolent that if granted our King could have nothing yet the King pudet haec insisted That tho he was contented with such Propositions as he required so as accepted in ten Days yet if granted by the States they should be of no force nor will he enter into any Treaty of Peace unless his most Christian Majesty shall receive Satisfaction from the States in his Particular After the French King should have all the King's Demands were a Regulation of the Trade to the East-Indies a Settlement of the Freedom of Navigation in Europe the Arrears for the Fishing-Trade upon the English Coast to assert a settled Revenue to the Crown for every Buss or Dogger-boat for the future and to make Satisfaction for the Damages
Forfeitures by Papists would be insignificant viz. remitted this intended Act did ordain that such Fines and Forfeitures one half should be to the Informers the other to charitable Uses But this Act being so contrary to the Duke's Design the Committee of Religion was discharged from meeting again and another short Act was brought into Parliament ratifying all former Acts for securing the Protestant Religion so that in this first Act the Duke pursued not his Instructions but went contrary to them and to the Custom of Scotland At the passing this Act the Earl of Argyle proposed that all Acts against Popery might be added which was opposed by the King's Advocate and some of the Clergy yet seconded by Sir George Lockhart and the President of the Sessions it passed without a Vote but such was the Jealousy of the Parliament that this did not secure the established Religion that several of the Members desired other Additions and Acts which the Duke in open Parliament promised when Time and Opportunity offered should pass but when at any time this was proposed the Test was obtruded If the Parliament were so zealous to secure the established Religion the Duke was not less to secure the Succession of the Crown of Scotland shrewdly struck at in England in the very Person of the Duke and to that end a Bill was brought in and passed wherein it was declared High Treason to affirm that the Succession of the Crown of Scotland can be altered from the next of Proximity of Blood but how agreeable this was to the Title of the Bruces and Stuarts who had no Title to the Succession of the Crown of Scotland but by Act of Parliament has already been shewed and how disagreeable this Act was to the Duke's Grandfather's Succession to the Crown of Scotland without any Act of Parliament let any Man judg This Act was not only thus contrary to the Laws and Usages of Scotland but the Act is equivocal if not contradictory to the Duke's Design for there is a difference between the next Heir and the next in Proximity of Blood as if a Man had several Sons and the eldest has a Son or Daughter his Father living and after his Father dies his eldest Son's Son is Heir and his other Sons and Daughters are next in Proximity of Blood the Heir being a degree in Blood further removed from the common Ancestor than his Uncles or Aunts and this was the case of Richard II. of England Son of the Black Prince Edward the Third's Eldest Son who succeeded to the Crown of England though his Uncles the Dukes of Clarence Lancaster York and Cambridg were nearer of Blood to Edward the Third This Act for the Succession of the Crown of Scotland was succeeded by another called the Test as contradictory to it self as contrary to the Act of Succession to be taken by all Persons in publick Trust in Scotland wherein they solemnly Swear in the Presence of the Eternal God whom they invoke as Judg and Witness of their sincere Intention of this their Oath That they own and profess the true Protestant Religion contained in the Confession of Faith recorded in the first Parliament of King James the Sixth and believe the same to be founded on and agreeable to the Written Word of God That they will adhere thereto and endeavour to educate their Children therein and never consent to any Change or Alteration contrary thereto and renounce all Popish and Fanatical Doctrines inconsistent with the said Protestant Religion and Confession of Faith And by this their solemn Oath they Swear That King Charles the Second is the only Supream Governour of this Realm over all Persons and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and renounce all Foreign Jurisdiction of the Pope or any other Person and promise to bear true Faith and Allegiance to the King his Heirs and Lawful Successors and to their Power to defend all their Rights and Prerogatives And by this their solemn Oath they Swear They judg it unlawful for Subjects upon pretence of Reformation or any Pretence whatsoever to enter into any Covenants or Leagues or to convene c. in any Council to treat of any Matter of State Ecclesiastical or Civil without his Majesty's special Command or express Licence or to take up Arms against the King or those commissionated by him That they will never rise in Arms or enter into such Covenants or Assemblies That there lies no Obligation upon them by the National Covenant or the solemn League or Covenant or any other way to endeavour any Change or Alteration of the Government either of Church or State as by Law established and promise and swear to the utmost of their Power to maintain the King's Jurisdiction against all deadly and as they shall answer it before God and that they took this Oath in the true and genuine Sense and Meaning of the Words without any Equivocation Mental Reservation or Evasion and never to accept of any Dispensation from any Creature So God help them By these two Acts you may observe the Scotish Temper whether it were natural or in contradiction to the Kirk-Party I will not say nor how much higher it flew than the Tory in England but because of the extraordinariness of these two Acts it 's fit to make some Reflections upon them Such another Law as that of the Succession was made the twenty first of Richard the Second in the Case of Roger Mortimer which lasted not longer than the next Year after when the Law was not only repealed but Henry the Fourth succeeded contrary to it whereas this Law continued for above eight Years after when it not only lost its Force but another Face appeared in Scotland and so continues in spight of this Law Now from this treasonable Law let us make some Remarks upon this ranting swearing Law called the Test We have said elsewhere that all Oaths are assertory of the Truth of Things Speech and Actions in time past or promissory to do or forbear to do some Act in time to come and now let 's consider what is Truth and the End of an assertory Oath Truth is proper to intellectual and reasonable Creatures and is either the apprehension of intelligible Beings as God a Law the Soul Time c. which can never be the Objects of Sense and of the Causes and Consequences of Intentions Speech and Action for Sense is not of Futurity but of present Things and Actions the Consequence or Inference will be whether good or bad just or unjust c. However all intelligible Beings and the Causes of Things and Actions are ever assumed not sworn to and if another does not nor will assent to them swearing to the Truth of them will be to no purpose So it is of the Consequence of Speech and Actions if another be not convinced from the Reason of such Consequence or Inference swearing it to be so will never do it But though sensible Things Speech and Actions
make no Alterations in either it will not be long before you shall see Alterations made in both without you And I promise and swear to maintain the King's Jurisdictions against all deadly as I shall answer it before God Why this again For before you sware to maintain all the King 's Rights and Prerogatives and what does the King's Jurisdiction add to them However you are very prodigal of your Swearing and if his Highness will not believe you for your Swearing before you 'll try how far he 'll believe you now And that I take this Oath in the plain and genuine Sense and Meaning of the Words without any Equivocation Mental Reservation or Evasion and never to accept of any Dispensation from any Creature So God help me This is well sworn to interpret your Truth and Sincerity especially when the whole Oath is Confusion Equivocation or Contradiction and not one plain and intelligible Sentence in it In the Debates in Parliament for passing this Test the Earl of Argyle declared his Opinion That as few Oaths as could be should be imposed and that the Oath of Allegiance and Declaration had effectually debarred all Fanaticks of getting into any Places of Trust and though some Papists had swallowed the Oath yet a Word or two of Addition to guard against them was all he judged necessary The Earl opposed the dispensing with the King's Sons and Brother's taking the Test for that the King and People were of one Religion and hoped the Parliament would do nothing to loose what was fast nor open a Gap for the Royal Family to differ in Religion for their Example if it once appeared to the People to be honourable would have more Followers than a Thousand others would have and therefore wished if any Exception were it might be particular to his Highness which the Duke opposing the Earl concluded if it did pass it would do more hurt to the Protestant Religion than all the rest of the Acts and many other Acts would do good This Plainness of the Earl was the Cause of all that befel him as he was afterwards told by the Bishop of Edinburgh but the first Appearance of the Duke's Displeasure was two Bills given in against him one by the Earl of Errol the other by the King's Advocate who acknowledged it to be done by Commandment otherwise it was without his Line These struck at the Earl's Estate and Honours only that of Errol was that the Earl's Estate might be liable to pay him and others for the Debts contracted by his Father The Advocate 's Claim was to all his Heritable Offices But the Duke being informed that a Judgment in this Case would have exposed the Marquess of Huntley's Estate who was a zealous Papist the Duke of his own Accord put a full Stop to it for he found he said it did plainly impugn the King's Prerogative and might be of ill Consequence After this the Parliament was adjourned and a new Design was to get a Commission from the King to review all the Earl's Rights and heritable Offices and to charge his Estate for more than 't was worth Hereupon the Earl applied himself to the Duke against such a Commission and intreated him that if any quarreled his Right his Case might be remitted to the ordinary Judicatories according to the established Laws of the Land but this was not granted yet the Duke was pleased to allow the Earl time to go into the Country to bring his Evidence with a Promise no Commission should pass till the Earl's Return But you 'll see something more than the Earl's Estate was designed For the Earl was no sooner gone but he and the President of the Sessions were turned out of it Hereupon the Earl wrote to the Earl of Murray the King's Secretary praying leave to wait upon the King which he was pleased readily to grant and upon his Return to Edinburgh begg'd the same Favour of the Duke who told him he might not kiss the King's Hand till he had taken the Test Here you may observe the Test was not to be taken by any but those who bear Office nor to be imposed upon any before the First of January 1680 and this was about the Beginning of November before and the Earl being acquainted that one of the Clerks of the Council was appointed to summon the Earl to the Council the next Day which he conceived to be to take the Test he asked the Duke if with his Favour he might not have the Allowance by the Act The Duke told him no and the Earl urged it again in vain all the Delay he could obtain was but till Thursday the third of November the next Council-Day of Course Then the Earl said he was the less fond of the Test because he found some who had refused it were still in Favour and others as the Register who had taken it were turned out at which his Highness laught But how comes your Highness said the Earl to press the Test so hastily Sure there are some things in it which your Highness does not overmuch like To which the Duke answered angerly and in a Passion most true that the Test was brought into Parliament without the Confession of Faith but the late President caused put in the Confession which makes it such as no honest Man can take it which is a greater Contravention and depraving the Test than the Perjury and Treason charged upon the Earl for them then the Earl replied he had the more Reason to advise In this Interval the Earl spake with the Bishop of Edinburgh and saw his Explanation of the Test and that of the Bishop of Aberdeen and the Synod's Explanation of the Test and the Explanation of it by the Synod and Clergy of Perth and that of the Earl of Queensberry which as they differ all from one another so were they printed and made publick and which you may read at large in the Earl of Argyle's Case It 's observable that tho by the Test they swear the Confession of Faith recorded in the first of King James the sixth To be founded upon and agreeable to the Word of God and that they will never consent to any Change or Alteration thereto and at last swear they take it in the plain and genuine Sense and Meaning of the Words without any Equivocation yet the Bishop of Aberdeen and the Synod in the 2d Article of their Explanation say We do not hereby prejudg the Churches Right to and Power of making an Alteration in the said Confession as to the Ambiguity and obscure Expressions thereof or of making a more unexceptionable Frame and having made several other Exceptions the Sixth Article concludes When we swear that we take the Test in the plain and genuine Sense of the Words c. we understand it only so far as it does not contradict the Exceptions And the Synod of Perth makes four explanatory Exceptions to the Test and the fifth concludes When we swear in the
not mean by taking the Test to bind up himself from wishing and endeavouring any Alteration in a lawful Way which he shall think fit for advancing the Church and State where by his Example he invited others to be loose from the Test to make Alterations 6. That he understood this as part of his Oath which was Treasonable Invasion upon the Royal Legislative Power as if it were lawful for him to make to himself an Act of Parliament For the better understanding the Earl's Case it 's fit to consider first the Test was not to be imposed upon any but those who bear Office and the Earl was desirous to have laid down all his Offices which was denied him Secondly it was not to be imposed before the first of January whereas all these Proceedings against the Earl upon the Test were not only unwarrantable but the Council usurped the Royal Legislative Authority by imposing the Test upon the Earl before Thirdly that this Explanation of the Test by the Earl was by the Duke's Command and Allowance of the Council one Day and the next Day made Treason for publishing it the Earl being peremptorily commanded by the Duke to deliver the Explanation he had drawn in Writing to the Council 1. The Earl's Counsel insisted that the Earl having before always dutifully and loyally behaved himself to the King his Words and Intentions ought to be interpreted in the best Sense and in his Favour 2. That the Act against Leasing-making and depraving the King's Laws were for plain Words and Speeches tending to make Discords between the King and People and were never intended against a Person in Judicature required to give the true Sense of a Law to the best of his Skill and Conscience and that it would be strange in such a Case that this should be a Crime if one Man differ from another whereas oftentimes not only learned Lawyers but the Judges themselves differ about the Interpretation of Laws 3. That the Act of Parliament does not impose the Test generally but as a Qualification for those who shall bear publick Office and therefore it is just and commendable in any Person who has a Scruple of Conscience upon him to declare his meaning in taking of it how he understands it it matters not whether he errs or not for Conscientia etiam erronea obligat especially where a Man's Conscience is opposite to his Interest as in this Case to lose his Preferment nor was this any Reflection by the Earl upon the Act of Parliament nor their Prudence in imposing the Test 4. Tho the Earl could not take the Test otherwise than he explained it yet by the Act there was no greater Penalty than that Habetur pro recusante he should not hold his Places of Trust 5. That the Counsel allowed the Earl's Explanation by bidding him take his Place after he had made his Explanation 6. The Earl's Explanation could not be treasonable viz. Animo defamandi whenas he only made it to the Council when required whereas some Bishops whole Presbyteries and Synods had made Explanations of the Test and in downright Terms charged it with Inconsistencies and Contradictions and these allowed to be printed before the Earl made his and even the Council themselves had made an Explanation of it before the Earl was tried tho the Parliament was then in being and this made publick Q. If this were not more Treason than the Earl's tho his Counsel durst not say so 7. That the Earl by making his Explanation has assumed a Legislative Power to which it was answered The Legislative Power extends to all but the Earl's Explanation refers only to himself how he understood he might take the Test and this was done without any Diminution to the Legislative Power of making or interpreting Laws and if the Legislative Power be not satisfied it cannot extend any further than that the Earl shall be a Refuser of the Oath which is neither Treason nor Perjury as was charged upon the Earl 8. That the Earl was ready to give Obedience as far as he could did not import the Parliament had imposed an unlawful Oath for here is no Impeachment of the Justice or Prudence of the Law-giver nor can any Law be so plain especially affirmative Laws as this is that every Man shall understand it alike and if one Man declare one Sense of it and another otherwise how does this become Treason in one or the other or import the Injustice or Illegality of the Law 9. That the Earl was confident the Parliament never intended contradictory Oaths which was so far from being treasonable that considering the plain downright Objections spread abroad of the Inconsistencies and Contradictions of the Test it was a high Vindication of the Parliament 10. Therefore he thinks no Body can explain it but for himself which having no reference to any other this cannot be taken for any diminution of the Parliamentary Authority or depraving of the Law 11. That he takes it so far as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion if this be a Crime the Earl is neither the Beginner nor Promoter of it so many Bishops Synods and Presbyteries having before printed it with Allowance from the Council nor the Promoter of it for the Earl said this only for himself and was passive in it being required by the Council to make his Explanation and if they divulged it 't was their Fault 12. That he did not bind up himself in his Station and in a lawful way to wish and endeavour any Alteration he thinks to the Advantage of the Church or State not repugnant to the Protestant Religion and his Loyalty This has reference to the Earl in his Station as he is a Peer of Scotland who has not only a Right in Parliament to debate freely of any Law in being but is a Member which has a Legislative Right and Vote to repeal as well as make Laws and herein can no more bind up himself than one Act of Parliament can bind another Parliament Note the Earl does not say this is part of the Test-Oath but part of his Oath in the Sense he takes the Test which makes no alteration of the Test The King's Advocate Sir George Mackenzy being one of the Conspiracy in contriving the Earl's Destruction you need not fear but he 'll strain his Wit to make good his Indictment of the Earl He begins with a long Invective against the jugling Covenant and this excellent Law the Test was established to prevent the like for the future and that no Law is of private Interpretation and if it were Men would be loose from Obedience to all Law and concludes with a Lie that there was no force upon the Earl to take the Oath that he took it for his own Advantage It 's true no private Interpretation of any Law is of force to bind another and whatsoever Interpretation another makes of any Law it makes no Alteration in the Law but if a
Oates was in Town unless he should have the Minutes of his Examination before and so Mr. Page but Mayo and Butler both swore Oates was in Town but unless Sarah Pain could be found 't was impossible for Oates to prove Ireland was in Town in August for Bedlow was dead and Oates could not swear for himself But Ex tempore verum nascitur Ireland was Confessor to Mr. John Jenison Father of Mr. Thomas Jenison a Jesuit in this Conspiracy and who died in Newgate elder Brother of Mr. Robert Jenison This Mr. Jenison having been at Windsor in August 1678 came from thence to Ireland's Chamber the 19th and found him pulling off his Boots on the Frame of a Table being newly come from Staffordshire Ireland ask'd him from whence he came who told him from Windsor Ireland enquired about the Diversions of the Court Jenison said His Majesty's chief Delight was in Hawking and Fishing accompanied only with two or three early in the Morning How easily then might he be taken off answer'd Ireland Then Ireland asked Mr. Jenison if he would be assisting in taking off the King which if he would Ireland said he would forgive him 20 l. which he owed Ireland Afterwards Ireland ask'd him if he knew any Irish-men who were courageous and stout Jenison told him he knew Captain Levallian Kerney Broghall and Wilson then Ireland ask'd him if he would go along with these and assist in taking off the King which he refusing Ireland said he knew Levallian and Kerney and set down the other two Names in writing and said he was going to the Club to Mr. Coleman Mr. Levallian and Kerney and dunn'd Mr. Jenison for the 20 l. which he owed Ireland but Ireland at his Death denying he was in Town from the third of August till the fourteenth of September Mr. Jenison changed his Religion upon it and printed the Reason and after upon his Oath at my Lord Stafford's Trial declared this and a farther Account of the Conspiracy against the King and for introducing the Popish Religion If living Testimonies shall be doubted yet I conceive I shall put it out of doubt that Ireland was in Town when his Staffordshire Witnesses said he was in Staffordshire by a Proof which could not be bribed or corrupted One Mr. Benjamin Hinton a Goldsmith in Lombard-street was Ireland's Cashier and Mr. Hinton going out of Town at that time in Aug. 1678 met Ireland at or about Barnet coming for London when Ireland told him that he had extraordinary Occasions for Money and urged Hinton to go back with him but Hinton told him his Man could do Ireland's Business as well as he and his Occasions would not permit him to go back I asked Mr. Hinton the Truth of this to which he would not give me any Answer but be this true or false it 's entred into Hinton's Book of Accompts paid to Mr. Ireland ' s own Hands whereas the other Entries are paid by his Order and 't is said Mr. Hinton's Man would depose he paid these Monies to Ireland himself Mr. Hinton afterwards failing a Commission of Bankrupt was sued against him and his Book of Accompts was delivered and kept at the Widow Vernon's Coffee-house in Bartholomew Lane on the back side of the Royal Exchange where any Man may see the Truth of this Entry I am assured Mr. Hinton was in Court at Oates his Trial to have testified this but was terrified from it for fear of being undone However Oates was found guilty of Perjury upon both Points in this Trial before Jefferies and his Brethren and his Sentence was to be whipt from Aldgate to Newgate the next Wednesday after and the Friday after but a Day between from Newgate to Tyburn which was put in Execution with the utmost Rigour the Stripes of the first Whipping being so sore and green upon the second that few other Men could have undergone the second to stand in the Pillory five times in the Year and to be a Prisoner during Life which was as close as his Whipping was severe This was the first Act of this King's Clemency and Tenderness to his People in Imitation of his good gracious and kind Brother and this before any general Pardon as is usual upon Kings coming to their Crowns or the Parliament had met but it might be easily presaged whereto this tended and tho it began with Oates yet Dangerfield underwent as severe a Punishment with a worse Fate for discovering the Meal-Tub Plot to have thrown the Popish Plot upon the Presbyterians These were the Preparations which King James made before the Parliament met to demonstrate to the World and them how sincerely he had made good his Promise to his Privy Council That he would never invade any Man's Property and imitate his good and gracious Brother in his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People and make it his Endeavours to preserve the Government both in Church and State as it was established by Law By Law no new Laws can be made nor old ones repealed or the Subject taxed but by Parliament But Flatterers in this King's Father and Grand-father's Reign ascribed these Powers to the King without Consent in Parliament and that Obedience was due to their Absolute Will and Pleasure and the Parasites of this King and his Brother did the same but under a new Doctrine termed Passive Obedience but these Princes not trusting to this would make a Parliament Felo de se and by corrupting them in their Principles ruin the Being of them and so to be at the sole disposing of the Prince The House of Commons is made up of 513 Members whereof 92 are Knights of Shires and Counties the rest are Citizens Burgesses and Barons of the Cinque Ports so as the Knights of the Shires are not near one Fourth of the House of Commons The King creates the Temporal Lords in Parliament and names the Spiritual so that if the King can make the Members of Corporations to give up their Charters and take such as he shall grant it will be in his Power to make above â…˜ of the House of Commons The Parliament at Oxford being dissolved the Contrivance of the Court was to play this Game but because Warranto's against all the Charters in England tho the King had made Judges and the Sheriffs would be sure to return such Juries as should be sure to do the Work would take up so much time as King Charles should never live to enjoy the Fruits of his Design 'T was therefore contrived that after the Court had got North and Rich Sheriffs to return such Juries as should do their Work to begin at the City of London and if the Court could have Judgment against their Charter few or none of the other Corporations would presume to abide the Contest So said so done for in Trinity-Term in 1682 Judgment was given against the City Charter yet there were three remarkable Observations upon it First It was without any Precedent Secondly
Doctrine of Passive Obedience had made a plain and easy Passage for the Popish Faction to take Possession of this Power The Bishop of London therefore after the Lords had voted an Address of Thanks to the King's Speech moved in the name of himself and all his Brethren that the House would debate the King's Speech which as it was extraordinary and unusual in the House so was it not less surprizing to the King and Court who now dreaded the Lords would concur with the Commons in their Address to prevent which the King first prorogued and then dissolved the Parliament and never called another in all his Reign And thus the King made good to the Parliament in his Speech to them the 28th of May That the best Way to engage him to meet them often was to use him well and did expect that they would comply with him in what he desired and that they would do it speedily that it might be a short Sessions and that he and the Parliament might meet again to all their Satisfactions and for the Bishop of London the King shall remember his Motion in due time when he shall plead no Privilege of Parliament The King having so ill performed his Promise to the Parliament of often meeting of them where he might hear of it again which by no means he would endure after he had dissolved them had a fair Field without any Rub to do what he pleased and to petition him or represent the Grievances of the Nation out of Parliament shall be a great Crime next to High Treason And now 't is time to observe the Steps the King proceeded by to maintain the Church and State of England as by Law established His Brother had laid the Foundation of making a Parliament felo de se by hectoring and making Bargains with Corporations to surrender their Charters and taking new ones from him whereby he reserved a Power that if they did not send such Members as pleased him he would resume the Charters he granted them and herein he made a great Progress till his Keeper and Attorney General refused to grant Patents to such poor Corporations as could not pay their Fees so as a new Keeper or Chancellor and Attorney-General must be had who would grant Patents gratis or a Stop would be made in the Progress of so noble a Design In a lucky Hour my Lord Keeper N died at Astrop-Wells I think when Jeffries was in his March to the West and for a Reward of my Lord Jeffries's Clemency that he shewed had the Seals given him with the Title of Lord Chancellour but the Attorney was not so lucky but lived to be turned out and another put in his Place which would perform his Office more charitably to these indigent Corporations which could not pay their Fees in taking new Patents after they had perfidiously betrayed their old But this was but one Step towards this Holy Work the King to make a thorow Reformation will make the Judges in Westminster-Hall to murder the Common Law as well as the King and his Brother designed to murder the Parliament by it self and to this end the King before he would make any Judges would make a Bargain with them that they should declare the King's Power of dispensing with the Penal Laws and Tests made against Recusants out of Parliament However herein the King stumbled at the Threshold for it 's said he began with Sir Thomas Jones who had merited so much in Mr. Cornish his Trial and in the West yet Sir Thomas bogled at this and told the King He could not do it to which the K. answered He would have Twelve Judges of his Opinion and Sir Thomas replied He might have Twelve Judges of his Opinion but would scarce find Twelve Lawyers of his Opinion The Truth of this I have only from Fame but I 'm sure the King's Practice in reforming the Judges whereof all except my Lord Chief Baron Atkins and Justice Powel were such a Pack as never before sat in Westminster-Hall gave credit to it But if the Lord Chief Justice Thorp for taking a Bribe of 100 l. was adjudged to be hanged and all his Lands and Goods forfeited in the Reign of Edward the 3d because thereby as much as in him lay he had broken the King's Oath made unto the People which the King had intrusted him withal and if Justice Tresilian was hanged drawn and quartered for giving his Judgment that the King might act contrary to one Act of Parliament and if Blake the King's Counsel Vsk the Under-Sheriff of Middlesex and five more of Quality were hanged in the Reign of Henry the 4th for but assisting in Tresilian's Judgment What then did these Judges deserve which made Bargains with the King before-hand to break the King's Oath he had made to the People and entituled the King to a Power to subvert the Laws and gave Judgment before-hand to act contrary to them Andrew Horn in his Mirror of Justice tells us That King Alfred the Mirror of Kings hanged Darling Segnor Cadwine Cole and 40 Judges more because they judged in particular Causes contrary to Law But sure this was not more to Alfred's Honour than it was to the Dishonour of King James to make Bargains before-hand with Judges to give Judgment contrary to the Laws themselves and unless they would break the King's Oath to his People they should not be his Judges The Laws and Constitutions of this Nation as has been already noted make it a Kingdom whereof the King is Head and the Nation the Body so that if you take away the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom there is neither King nor Kingdom Did not the King then descend from his Majesty in rending himself from his Kingdom by breaking Laws whereby he ceases to be a King and the Nation to be a Kingdom And what was it for that the King would not be content with the Soveraignty he had over the Nation wherein his Majesty consisted but would strain it into a Tyranny over the Nation It was to introduce a foreign exploded Dominion of the Pope denied by our Saviour and asserted by the Devil whereby how absolute soever the King would be over his Subjects yet himself and Kingdom must be at the Pope's Disposal to be deposed and destroyed as the Pope pleased Bishop King in the State of the Protestants in Ireland fol. 18. gives this Account of one Moore a Romish Priest who preached before the King at Christ's Church in Dublin in the Beginning of the Year 1690 where he told him to his Face that he did not do Justice to the Church and Churchmen and amongst other things said That Kings ought to consult Churchmen in Temporal Affairs the Clergy having a Temporal as well as Spiritual Right in the Kingdom but Kings had nothing to do in the Management of Spiritual Affairs but were to obey the Orders of the Church Thinking Men could not conceive this dispensing with the Penal Laws
and Dominion of Wales and of all and every the Offender or Offenders therein and them and every of them to order correct reform and punish by Censure of the Church And also We do give and grant full Power and Authority unto you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one in like manner as is aforesaid from time to time and at all times during Our Pleasure to inquire of search out and call before you all and every Ecclesiastical Person or Persons of what Degree or Dignity soever as shall offend in any of these Particulars before mentioned and them and every of them to correct and punish for such their Misbehaviours and Misdemeanors by suspending or depriving them from all Promotions Ecclesiastical and from all Functions in the Church and to inflict such other Punishment or Censures upon them according to the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm And further we do give full Power and Authority unto you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one by virtue hereof and in like manner and form as is aforesaid to inquire hear determine and punish all Incest Adulteries Fornications Outrages Misbehaviours and Disorders in Marriage and all other Grievances and great Crimes or Offences which are punishable or reformable by the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Our Realm committed or done or hereafter to be committed or done in any Place exempt or not exempt within this Our Realm according to the Tenor of the Ecclesiastical Laws in that Behalf Granting you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the Lord Chancellor to be one full Power and Authority to order and award such Punishment to every such Offender by Censures of the Church or other lawful Ways as is abovesaid And further We do give full Power and Authority to you or any three or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellour to be one to call before you or any three or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one all and every Offender and Offenders in any of the Premises and all such as you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall seem to be suspected Persons in any of the Premises which you shall object against them and to proceed against them and every of them as the Nature and Quality of the Offence or Suspicion in that Behalf shall require and also to call all such Witnesses or any other Person or Persons that can inform you concerning any of the Premises as you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one and them and every of them to examine upon their Corporal Oaths for the better Trial and opening of the Truth of the Premises or any Part thereof And if you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall find any Person or Persons whatsoever obstinate or disobedient in their Appearance before you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Chancellor to be one at your Calling and Commandments or else in not obeying or in not accomplishing your Orders Decrees and Commandments or any thing touching the Premises or any Part thereof or any other Branch or Clause contained in this Commission that then you or any three or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall have full Power and Authority to punish the same Person or Persons so offending by Excommunication Suspension Deprivation or other Censures Ecclesiastical And when any Persons shall be convented or prosecuted before you as aforesaid for any of the Causes above expressed at the Instance and Suit of any Person prosecuting the Offence in that Behalf that then you or any three or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall have full Power and Authority to award such Costs and Expences of the Suit as well to and against the Party as shall prefer or prosecute the said Offence as to and against the Party or Parties that shall be convented according as their Causes shall require and to you in Justice shall be thought reasonable And further Our Will and Pleasure is That you assume our well-beloved Subject William Bridgman Esquire one of the Clerks of our Council or his sufficient Deputy or Deputies in that behalf to be your Register whom we do by these Presents depute to that effect for the registring of all your Acts Decrees and Proceedings by virtue of this our Commission and that in like manner you or any three or more of you whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one by your Discretions shall appoint one or more Messenger or Messengers and other Officer or Officers necessary and convenient to attend upon you for any Service in this behalf Our Will and express Commandment also is That there shall be two Paper-Books indented and made the one to remain with the said Register or his sufficient Deputy or Deputies the other with such Persons and in such Places as you the said Commissioners or any three or more of you whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall in your Discretion think most fit and meet in both which Books shall be fairly enter'd all the Acts Decrees and Proceedings made or to be made by virtue of this Commission And whereas our Universities of Oxford and Cambridg and divers Cathedral and Collegiate Churches Colleges Grammar Schools and other Ecclesiastical Incorporations have been erected founded and endowed by several of our Royal Progenitors Kings and Queens of this Realm and some others by the Charity and Bounty of some of their Subjects as well within our Universities as other Parts and Places the Ordinance Rules and Statutes whereof are either embezeled lost corrupted or altogether imperfected We do therefore give a full Power and Authority to you or any five or more of you of whom we will you the afore-named Lord Chancellor always to be one to cause and command in our Name all and singular the Ordinances Rules and Statutes of our Universities and all and every Cathedral and Collegiate Churches Colleges Grammar-Schools and other Ecclesiastical Incorporations together with their several Letters Patents and other Writings touching or in any wise concerning the several Erections and Foundations to be brought and exhibited before you or any five or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one willing commanding and authorizing you or any five or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one upon the exhibiting and upon diligent and deliberate View Search and Examination of the said Statutes Rules and Ordinances Letters Patents and Writings as is aforesaid the
have a Commission but by Law is utterly disabled and disarmed Will you exchange your Birth-right of English Laws and Liberties for Martial and Club-Law and help to destroy all others only to be eaten up at last your selves If I know you well as you are English Men you hate and scorn these things And therefore be not unequally yoked with idolatrous and bloody Papists Be valiant for the Truth and shew your selves Men. The same Considerations are likewise humbly offered to all English Seamen who have been the Bulwark of this Nation against Popery and Slavery ever since 88. The first Lightning which the dormant Commission of Ecclesiastical Affairs produced fell upon the Bishop of London a Person of Exemplary Vertue and Loyalty and who besides the Nobility of his Birth had his Father slain in the late Civil Wars in defence of the King's Father's Cause and had himself and all his Brothers freely and valiantly exposed their Lives in defence of it The Crime alledged against him was that by the King's Letter he did not suspend Doctor Sharp then Dean of Norwich now Archbishop of York for preaching a Sermon against the Frauds and Corruptions of the Church of Rome by a Power as Arbitrary as that by which the Commissioners acted and for this these Commissioners suspended the Bishop tho every one understood the true Cause was the Bishop's Motion in the House of Lords to have debated the King's Speech Tantum Religio potuit swadere malorum I 'm perswaded King Charles the II. to make a Roman Hierarchy in Scotland made the Bishops out of the most obnoxious of the Clergy who besides their profligate Lives run the King's Prerogative there to a higher pitch than Laud in the King's Father's time did in England And that towards the latter end of his Reign he laid the same design here for the Bishopricks of Oxford York St. David's and Chester becoming void about the latter end of his Reign or beginning of King James's I 'll not name the Bishoprick of Litchfield and Coventry for the Petticoat governed in that Election Dr. Samuel Parker whom Mr. Marvel in his Rehearsal transposed calls Bays a Man of a virulent Disposition and who by railing against the Church got into Preferment and when he was in became a zealous Railer against them without was made Bishop of Oxford Dr. Cartright as high for the Prerogative as Parker was made Bishop of Chester and the Succession to these two Bishopricks was the more observable because Parker succeeded Dr. Fell and Cartright Dr. Peirson Men of Piety and Learning equal to any in their time and one Watson an obscure Man was made Bishop of St. David's but the Archbishoprick of York was reserved for a Person of another Temper whom these Bishops were making way for The Presidentship of Magdalen College in Oxford becoming void and the Fellows fearing a Mandamus would be imposed upon them for some Person not qualified by the Statutes and whom by their Oaths they could not submit to chose Dr. Hough for President a Person qualified by their Statutes for that Place As the Fellows feared so it came to pass for the King sent them a peremptory Mandamus to chuse the Bishop of Oxford Bays their President but he being a Person not qualified by the Statutes of their College which the Fellows were sworn to observe they in a humble Answer excused themselves as being otherways obliged as well by their Oath as Statutes I will not repeat the Anger the King express'd hereupon 't is in Print but sure such Language was never used by any Prince before But if the King 's harsh Language will not work the Fellows to his Will he will send the Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Affairs among them to turn them out of their Fellowships wherein they had as much Property as any other had to any real or personal Estate nor shall these Commissioners stay here but by a new strain of Tyranny never practised but by Absolute Tyrants they make the Fellows uncapable of any other Ecclesiastical Preferments The Fellows thus expelled the Statutes of the College are thrown out of Doors to make room for a Seminary of Jesuits and Popish Priests as much tending to the Subversion of the established Church of England as the Statutes of the College But see how God in his Providence blasted these things for the Bishop of Oxford had scarce taken possession of his thus new-acquired Presidentship when he died and you 'll soon see the Fellows restored again in spite of these Commissioners and Dr. Hough made Bishop of Oxford as well as President of Magdalen College If the King were zealous in advancing his Prerogative Royal both in the Church and State of England he will not be less in Scotland whereupon the 12th of February 1686-87 he issues out his Proclamation for Toleration of Religion which you may read in the State Tracts wherein he asserts his Absolute Power which he says his Subjects ought to obey without reserve But the Toleration which the King allows his Roman Catholick Subjects in Scotland he 'll scarce permit to his Protestant Subjects in Ireland for Tyrconnel for so has Talbot merited for his Service in Reforming the Army is not only made an Earl but Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the room of my Lord Clarendon and one Fitton made Sir Alexander an infamous Person detected for Forgery not only at Westminster but at Chester and fined in the House of Lords was brought out of the King's Bench in England to be Chancellor and Keeper of the King's Conscience in Ireland in place of Sir Charles Porter The first Proclamation which Tyrconnel issued out was dated Feb. 21. 1687. wherein he promised to defend the Laws Liberties and established Religion but leaves out the preservation of the Acts of Settlement and Explanation But tho at first he only left out the Acts of Settlement and Explanation being resolved first to out the Protestants and let the Irish into their forfeited Estates yet did he not stay here and Bishop King in his Treatise of the State of the Protestants in Ireland gives so particular and methodical an Account how he proceeded in the destroying the Church and State of Ireland as by Law established that I refer the Reader to it not intending to lessen it by taking parts of it When the Judges had been above a Year propagating the King's Power in Westminster-Hall and in their Circuits of dispensing with the Penal Laws and Tests against Dissenters from the Church upon the 25th of April 1687 out comes the King's Declaration to all his Subjects for Liberty of Conscience wherein the King declares That it had been a long time his constant Sense and Opinion that Conscience ought not to be restrained nor People forced in Matters of meer Religion and that it was contrary to his Inclination as he thought it to be the disinterest of the Government by spoiling Trade and depopulating Countries c. Sure no Prince ever acted
of Indulgence was an unlawful Act and that if they had submitted to the King's Will to have enjoined it to have been read in all Churches and Chappels of their respective Diocesses it had been an unlawful Act which was one Reason they could not comply with the King's Will and that this Declaration was not intended a Favour to the Protestant Dissenters but a Design to ruin the established Religion and Church of England and the enjoining the Bishops to have read was a Design upon their Persons as well as the Declaration was upon the Church and that the King professed himself to be of the Popish Religion which they believed and declared to be Idolatry in the worshipping Images and derogatory to God's Honour by Invocation of Saints whereby they grant to Creatures an Omniscience which is inseparable from God and only to be ascribed to him and that the King had owned the Papal Power which not only claims a Dominion over all Kings and Kingdoms to be at the Pope's disposal and who had declared the Church of England to be Heretical Schismatical and Sacrilegious Persons with whom no Faith is to be kept but had assumed a Power equal or superiour to God himself in dispensing with God's Laws and setting its own above them by sending his Ambassador to the Pope and receiving his Nuncio With what Conscience then could the Bishops approach God's Altars in their highest Acts of Devotion and in the Prayer for the Parliament declare to God that he is their most religious King and in the Litany to pray to God to keep and strengthen the King in the Worship of God or Religion which the King profest And how could they delare to God he is their most gracious Sovereign when he had imprisoned them for not submitting to his unlawful Will and had owned a Power which had declared them Hereticks Schismaticks and Sacrilegious Persons who were by all ways and means to be extirpated from the Face of the Earth Yet the Bishops by their Canonical Obedience were as much obliged hereto and to enjoin the Clergy in their respective Diocesses to offer these Praises to God as they were not to obey the King's Will by enjoining the King's Declaration of Indulgence to be read by all the Clergy in their Diocesses To this Dilemma had the flattering Church and State in King Charles the II's Reign tho intending it against the Presbyterians by their Act of Vniformity brought the Church and State too in the Reign of King James But lest this establishing of Popery should have no longer support than in the King's Life a new Miracle is to be added to the Legend for the next day after the Bishops were committed to the Tower the Queen was brought to Bed of a Prince of Wales so that now they had got a Prince of Wales and the Queen received the Consecrated Clouts and the Pope by his Nuncio is become God-father a Foundation so infallible is laid for exalting the Papal Chair and extirpating the Pestilent Northern Heresy that it's Heresy to doubt it But Man purposes and God disposes and in truth without God's special Assistance not only these Dominions of England Scotland and Ireland but all the Western Parts of Europe were not to be retrieved out of I may say even a desperate State for in England the King had a standing Army of above 20000 Men and the Whigs were but too forward to congratulate the King in his Designs and in humouring him in giving him up their Charters as the Tories in King Charles his Reign in their Abhorrences of the King 's calling a Parliament and as forward then as the Whigs now in surrendring their Charters The Protestant Army in Ireland not only disbanded by Tyrconnel and a Popish Army set up but the Protestants disarmed and Scotland so perfectly subdued that there the King 's Absolute Will without reserve must pass for Law The King of Spain so weak as not able to defend himself much less relieve others the Empire engaged in a War against the Turks in the East so as the Western Parts were in no Condition to repel the Impression the French should make upon it The Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark remote and at such natural Enmity with one another that if one should side with France or England the other would engage against it and tho Holland were considerable elsewhere at Sea yet their Strength at Sea was inferiour to the English but much more in Conjunction of the French with the English However something must be done for Modesty in this State had been the highest Crime and of all Foreign Princes the Prince of Orange was most immediately concerned not only in the Oppression of the French King upon his Principality of Orange and the Dangers which threatned the Vnited Provinces by the swelling Grandeur of the French but by the King 's Arbitrary Proceedings in England for the Princess was the Presumptive Heir to the Crown of England and Scotland And since it is the Laws and Constitutions which erect these Nations into Kingdoms whereof the King is the Head then if the King destroys the Laws and Constitutions he is neither King nor the Princess of Orange Presumptive Heir to them besides since the King had assumed a Power of Dispensing with the Laws he might as well in Dispensing with the Succession and the Prince was well assured neither those about the King nor the Pope would much favour his or his Lady's Title to the Crown nor was the introducing the Prince of Wales into the World intended to have either the Prince or Princess come to the Crown of England The Prince of Orange thus injured by both these Kings and being denied the Benefit of any Humane Laws for redress has recourse to God and his Sword for relief and opposes the Justice of his Cause against the Potency of his Adversaries Nor does he take up his Sword to vindicate his own Rights only but for restoring the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland to their antient Rights Laws and Privileges invaded by King James and to put a stop to the French King 's boundless Ambition and Tyranny in Murdering Ravaging and Destroying rather than making a War upon all his neighbouring Princes not dispossest and ruined by him A Design so great by so little a Prince as no less than a Divine Power could inspire him to such an Undertaking The Prince these two last years had several Conferences with the Electors of Brandenburg Saxony and the Princes of the House of Lunenburg and other Princes of Germany it 's believed in concerting Measures how to behave themselves against the Designs of these two Kings but the Results were so secret that I find no mention of them But how secret soever these Results were yet the Preparations to put them in Execution could be no Secret especially the Naval Preparations by Sea though the Dutch Ambassador assured the King they were not intended against him yet refused to communicate