Learning and that he imployed it chiefly in writing for his Religion of the Volume in Folio in which we have his Works two thirds are against the Churh of Rome one part of them is a Commentary on the Revelation proving that the Pope is Antichrist another part of them belonged more naturally to his Post Dignity which is the warning that he gave to all the Princes and States of Europe against the Treasonable and Bloody Doctrines of the Papacy The first Act he did when he came of Age was to swear in person with all his Family and afterwards with all his people of Scotland a Covenant containing an Enumeration of all the points of Popery and a most solemn Renunciation of them somewhat like our Parliament Test his first Speech to the Parliament of England was Copious on this Subject and he left a Legacy of a Wish on such of his Posterity as should go over to that Religion which in goâ—d manners is suppressed It is known K. Iames was no Conquerour and that he made more use of his Pen than his Sword so the Glory that is peculiar to his Memory must fall chiefly on his Learned and Immortal Writings and since there is such a Veneration expressed for him it agrees not ill with this to wish that his Works were more studied by those who offer such Incense to his Glorious Memory IX His Majesty assures his people of Scotland upon a certain Knowledge and long Experience that the Catholicks as they are good Christians so they are likewise Dutiful Subjects but if we must believe both these equally then we must conclude severely against their being good Christians for we are sure they can never be good Subjects not only to a Heretical Prince if he does not extirpate Hereticks for their beloved Council of the Lateran that decreed Transubstantiation has likewise decreed that if a Prince does not extirpate Hereticks out of his â—ominions the Pope must depose him and declare his Subjects absolved from their Allegeance and give his Dominions to another so that even his Majesty how much soever he may be a Zealous Catholick yet cannot be assured of their fidelity to him unless he has given them secret Assurances that he is resolved to extirpate Hereticks out of his Dominions and that all the Pâ—omises which he now makes to these poor wretches are no other way to be kept than the Assurances which the Great Lewis gave to his Prâ—testant Subjects of his observing still the Edict of Nantes even after he had resolved to break it and also his last promise made in the Edict that repealed the Edict of Nantes by which he gave Assurances that no Violence should be used to any for their Religion in the very time that he was ordering all possible Violences to be put in execution against them X. His Majesty assures us that on all Occasions the Papists have shewed themselves good and faithful Suâ—jects to him and his Royal Predecessors but how Absolute soever the King's Power may be it seems his Knowledge of History is not so Absolute but it may be capable of some Improvement It will be hard to find out what Loyalty they shewed on the Gunpowder Plot or during the whole progress of the Rebellion of Ireland if the King will either take the words of King Iames of Glorious Memory or K. Charles the first that was indeed of pious and blessed Memory rather than the penners of this Proclamation it will not be hard to find Occasions where they were a little wanting in this their so much boasted Loyalty and we are sure that by the Principles of that Religion the King can never be assured of the Fidelity of those he calls his Catholick Subjects but by engaging to them to make his Heretical Subjects Sacrifices to their Rage XI The King declares them capable of all the Offices and Benefices which he shall think fit to bestow on them and only restrains them from invading the Protestant Churches by force so that here a Door is plainly opened for admitting them to the Exercise of their Religion in Protestant Churches so they do not break into them by force and whatsoever may be the Sense of the term Benefice in its antient and first signification now it stands only for Church Preferments so that when any Churches that are at the King's Gift fall vacant here is a plain intimation that they are to be provided to them and then it is very probable that all the Laws made against such as go not to their parish Churches will be severely turned upon those that will not come to Mass. XII His Majesty does in the next place in the vertue of his Absolute Power Annul a great many Laws as well those that Established the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy as the late Test enacted by himself in person while he represented his Brother upon which he gave as strange an Essay to the World of his Absolute Justice in the Attainder of the late Earl of Argile as he does now of his Absolute Power in condemning the Test it self he also repeals his own Confirmation of the Test since he came to the Crown which he offered as the clearest Evidence that he could give of his Resolution to maintain the Protestant Religion and by which he gained so much upon that Parliament that he obtained every thing from them that he desired of them till he came to try them in the Matters of Religion This is no Extraordinary Evidence to assure his people that his Promises will be like the Laws of the Medes and Perfians which alter not nor will the disgrace of the Commissioner that enacted that Law lay this matter wholly on him for the Letter that he brought the Speech that he made and the Instructions which he got are all too well known to be so soon forgotten and if Princes will give their Subjects reason to think that they forget their Promises as soon as the turn is served for which they were made this will be too prevailing a Temptation on the Subjects to mind the Princes promise as little as it seems he himself does and will force them to conclude that the Truth of the Prince is not so Absolute as it seems he fancies his power to be XIII Here is not only a repealing of a great many Laws and established Oaths and Tests but by the Exercise of the Absolute Power a new Oath is imposed which was never pretended to by the Crown in any former time and as the Oath is created by this Absolute Power so it seems the Absolute Power must be supported by this Oath since one branch of it is an Obligation to Maintain His Majesty and His Lawful Successors in the Exercise of this their Absolute Power and Authority against all deadly which I suppose is Scotch for Mortals now to impose so hard a yoke as this Absolute Power on the Subject seems no small stretch but it is a wonderful exercise of it to
prejudice against these Laws that the very making of them discovered a particular Malignity against His Majesty and therefore it is ill Manners to speak for them The first had perhaps an Eye at his being then Admiral and the last was possibly levelled at him though when that was discovered he was excepted out of it by a special Proviso And as for that which past in 73 I hope it is not forgot that it was enacted by that Loyal Parliament that had setled both the Prerogative of the Crown and the Rites of the Church and that had given the King more Money than all the Parliaments of England had ever done in all former Times A Parliament that had indeed some Disputes with the King but upon the first step that he made with relation to Religion or Safety they shewed how ready they were to forget all that was past as appeared by their Behaviour after the Triple Alliance And in 73 though they had great cause given them to dislike the Dutch War especially the strange beginning of it upon the Smirna Fleet and the stopping the Exchequer the Declaration for Toleration and the Writes for the Members of the House were Matters of hard Digestion yet no saoner did the King give them this new assurance for their Religion then though they had very great Reasons given them to be jealous of the VVar yet since the King was Engaged they gave him 1200000 Pounds for carrying it on and they thought they had no ill Penniworths for their Money when they carried home with them to their Countries this new Security for their Religion which we are now desired to throw up and which the Reverend Judges have already thrown out as a Law out of date If this had carried in it any new piece of Severity their Complaints might be just but they are extream tender if they are so uneasie under a Law that only gives them Leisure and Opportunities to live at Home And the last Test which was intended only for shutting them out from a share in the Legislative Body appears to be so just that one is rather amased to find that it was so long a doing than that it was done at last and since it is done it is a great presumption on our Understandings to think that we should be willing to part with it If it was not sooner done it was because there was not such cause given for Jealousie to work upon but what has appeared since that time and what has been Printed in his Majesties Name shews the World now that the Jealousies which occasion'd those Laws were not so ill grounded as some well meaning Men perhaps then believed them to be But there are some times in which all Mens Eyes come to be opened IX I am told some think it is very indecent to have a Test for our Parliaments in which the King's Religion iâ— accused of Idolatry but if this reason is good in this particular it will be full as good against several of the Articles of our Church and many of the Homilies If the Church and Religion of this Nation is so formed by Law that the King's Religion is declared over and over again to be Idolatrous what help is there for it It is no other than it was when His Majesty was Crowned and Swore to Maintain our Laws I hope none will be wanting in all possible Respect to his sacred Person and as we ought to be infinitely sorry to find him engaged in a Religion which we must believe Idolatrous so we are far from the ill manners of reflecting on his Person or calling him an Idolator for as every Man that reports a Lye is not for that to be called a Lyar so that tho' the ordering the Intention and the prejudice of a misperswasion are such abatements that we will not rashly take on us to call every Man of the Church of Rome an Idolater yet on the other hand we can never lay down our Charge against the Church of Rome as guilty of Idolatry unless at the same time we part with our Religion X. Others give us a strange sort of Argument to perswade us to part with the Test they say The King must imploy his Popish Subjects for he can trust no other and he is so assured of their Fidelity to him that we need apprehend no Danger from them This is an old Method to work on us to let in a sort of People to the Parliament and Government since the King cannot trust us but will depend on them so that as soon as this Law is repealed they must have all the Imployments and have the whole Power of the Nation lodged in their hands this seems a little to gross to impose even on Irish-men The King saw for many Years together with how much Zeal both the Clergy and many of the Gentry appeared for his Interests and if there is now a Melancholy Damp on their Spirits the King can dissipate it when he will and as the Church of England is a Body that will never Rebell against him so any Sullenness under which the late Administration of Affairs has brought them would soon vanish if the King would be pleas'd to remember a little what he has so often promised not only in Publick but in Pivate and would be contented with the Exercise of his own Religion without imbroiling his whole Affairs because F. Petre will have it so and it tempts Englishmen to to more than ordinary degrees of Rage against a sort of Men who it seems can infuse in a Prince born with the highest Sense of Honour possible Projects to which without doing some Violence to his own Royal Nature he could not so much as hearken to if his Religion did not so fatally muffle him up in a blind Obedience But if we are so unhappy that Priests can so disguise Matters as to mis-lead a Prince who without their ill Insluences would be the most Glorious Monarch of all Europe and would soon reduce the Grand Lauis to a much humbler Fgure yet it is not to be so much as imagined that ever their Arts can be so unhappily successful as to impose on an English Parliament composed of Protestant Members Some REFLECTIONS on His Majesties Proclamation of the Twelfth of February 1686 7 for a Toleration in Scotland together with the said Pro-Proclamation I. THe Preamble of a Prâ—clamamaâ—ion is fst writ in hast and is the flourish of some waâ—tâ—n Pen but one of such an Extraordinary 〈◊〉 as this is was probably more severely Examined there is a new designation of his Majesties Authority here set forth of his Absolute Power which is so often repeated that it deserves to be a little searched into Prerogative Royal and Soveraign Authority are Terms already received and known but for this Absolute Power as it is a new Term so those who have coined it may make it signifie what they will The Roman Law speaks of Princeps Legibus solutus and Absolute
in its natural signification importing the being without all Ties and Restraints then the true meaning of this seems to be that there is an Inherent Power in the King which can neither be restrained by Laws Promises nor Oaths for nothing less than the being free from all these renders a Power Absolute II. If the former Term seemed to stretch our Allegiance that which comes after it is yet a step of another nature tho one can hardly imagine what can go beyond Absolute Power and it is in these Words Which all our Subjects are to obey without reserve And this is the carrying Obedience many sizes beyond what the Grand Seigneur ever yet claimed For all Princes even the most violent Pretenders to Absolute Power till Lewis the Great 's time have thought it enought to oblige their Subjects to submit to their Power and to bear whatsoever they thought good to impose upon them but till the Days of the late Conversions by the Dragoons it was never so much as pretended that Subjects were bound to Obey their Prince without Reserve and to be of his Religion because he would have it so Which was the only Argument that those late Apostles made use of so it is probale this qualification of the Duty of Subjects was put in here to prepare us for a terrible le Roy le veut and in that case we are told here that we must Obey without Reserve and when those Severe Orders come the Privy Council and all such as execute this Proclamation will be bound by this Declaration to shew themselves more forward than any others to Obey without Reserve and those poor pretensions of Conscience Religion Honour and Reason will be then reckoned as Reserves upon their Obedience which are all now shat out III. These being the grounds upon which this Proclamation is founded we ought not only to consider what consequences are now drawn from them but what may be drawn from them at any time hereafter for if they are of force to justify that which is inferred from them it will be full as just to draw from the same promises an Abolition of the Protestant Religion of the Rights of the Subjects nor only to Church-Lands but to all Property whatsoever In a word it Asserts a Power to be in the King to Command what he will and an Obligation in the Subjects to Obey whatsoever he shall Command IV. There is also mention made in the Preamble of the Christian Love and Charity which His Majesty would have established among Neighbours but another dash of a Pen founded on this Absolute Power may declare us all Hereticks and then in wonderful Charity to us we must be told that we are either to Obey without Reserve or to be Burnt without Reserve We know the Charity of that Church pretty well It is indeed Fervent and Burning and if we have forgot what has been done in former Ages France Savoy and Hungary have set before our Eyes very fresh instances of the Charity of that Religion While those Examples are so green it is a little too imposing on us to talk to us of Christian Love and Charity No doubt His Majesty means sincerely and his Exactness to all his Promises chiesfly to those made since he came to the Crown will not suffer us to think an unbecoming Thought of his Royal-Intentions but yet after all tho' it seems by this Proclamation that we are bound to Obey without Reserve it is hardship upon hardship to be bound to Believe without Reserve V. There are a sort of People here Tolerated that will be hardly found out and these are the Moderate Presbyterians Now as some say that there are very few of those People in Scotland that deserves this Character so it is hard to tell what it amoâ—nts to and the calling any of them Immoderate cuts off all their share in this Grace Moderation is a quality that lyes in the mind and how this will be found out I canot so readily guess If a Standard had been given of Opinions or Practices then one could have known how this might have been distiâ—gâ—ished but as it lyes it will not be easy to make the Discrimination and the declaring them all Immoderate shuts them out quite VI. Another Foundation laid down for repealing all Laws made against the Papists is That they were Enacted in King Iames the Sixth's Minority with some harsh expressions that are not to be insisted on since they shew more the heat of the Penner than the Dignity of the Prince in whose name they are given out But all these Laws were ratifyed over and over again by King Iames when he came to be of fall Age and they have received many Confirmations by King Charles the First and King Charles the Second as well as by his present Majesty both when he represented his Brother in the Year 1681 and since he himself came to the Crown so that whatsoever may be said concerning the first Formation of those Laws they have received now for the course of a whole hundred Years thet are lapsed since King Iames was of full Age so many Confirmations that if there is any thing certain in Human Government we might depend upon them bat this new coyned Absolute Power must carry all before it VII It is also well known that the whole Settlement of the Church Lands and Tythes with many other things and more particularly the Establishment of the Protestant Religion was likewise enacted in King Iames's minority as well as those Penal Laws so that the Reason now made use of to annul the penal Laws will serve full as wel for another Act of this Absolute Power that shall abolish all those and if Maximes that unhinge all the Securities of Human Society and all that is sacred in Government ought to be lookt on with the justest and deepest prejudices possible one is tempted to lose the respect that is due to every thing that carrâ—es aâ—Royal Stamp upon it when he sees such grounds made use of as mâ—st shake all Settlements whatsoever for if a prescription of 120 Years and Confirmations reiterated over and over again these 100 Years past do not purge some Defects in the first Formation of those Law what can make us secure but this looks so like a Fetch of the French Prerogative Law both in their processes with Relation to the Elict of Nantes and those concerning Dependences at Mets that this seems to be a Copy from that famous Original VIII It were too much ill nature to look into the History of the last Age to examine on what grounds those Characters of pious and blessed given to the Memory of Q. Mary are built but since K. Iames's Memory has the character of glorious given to it if the Civility of the fair Sex makes one unwilling to look into one yet the other may be a little dwelt on The peculiar Glory that belongs to K. Iames's Memory is that he was a Prince of great
Mistery a little which are when His Majesty shall think it convenient for them to mett for the meaning of this seems plain that His Majesty is resolved that they shall never meet till he receive such Assurances in a new round of Closetting that he shall be pat out of doubt concerning it VII I will not enter into the dispute concerning Liberty of Conscience and the Reasons that may be offered for it to a Session of Parliament for there is scarce any one point that either with relation to Religion or Politicks affords a greater variety of matter for Reflection and I make no doubt to say that there is abundance of Reason to oblige Parliament to review all the nal Laws either with relation to Papists or to Dissenters but I will take the boldness to add one thing that the Kings Suspending of laws strikes at the root of this whole Government and subverts it quite for if there is any thing certain with relation to English Government it is this that the Executive Power of the Law is entirely in the King and the Law to fortifie him in the Management of it has cloathed him with a vast Prerogative and made it unlawful on any pretence whâ—â— oevâ— to resist him whereas on the other hand the Legislative Power is not so entirely in the King but that the Lords and Commons have such a share in it that no Law can be either made repealed or which is all one suspended but by their consent shâ— that the placing this Legislative Power singly in the King is a subversion of this whole Government since the Essence of all Governments consists in the Subjects of the Legislative Authority Acts of Violence or Injustice committed in the Executive part are such things that all Princes being subject to them the peace of mankind were very ill secured if it were not unlawful to resist upon any pretence taken from any ill Administrations in which as the Law may be doubtful so the Facts may be uncertain and at worst the publick Peace must always be more valued than any private Oppressions or Injuries whatsoever But the total Subversion of a Government being so contrary to the Trust that is given to the Prince who ought to execute it will put men upon uneasie and dangerous Inquiries which will turn little to the Advantage of those who are driving matters to such a doubtful and desperate Issue VIII If there is any thing in which the Exercise of the Legislative Power seems indispensable it is in those Oaths of Allegeance and Tests that are thought necessary to Qualifie men either to be admited to enjoy the Protection of the Law or to bear a share in the Government for in these the Security of the Government is chiefly concerned and therefore the total Extinction of these as it is not only a Suspension of them but a plain repealing of them so it is a Subverting of the whole Foundation of our Go-Government For the Regulation that King and Parliament had set both for the Subjects having the Protection of the State by the Oath of Allegeance and for a share in the places of Trust by the Tests is now pluckt up by the roots when it is declared That these shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken or subscribed by any persons whatsoever fot it is plain that this is no Suspension of the Law but a formal repeal of it in as plain Words as can be conceived IX His Majesty says that the Benefit of the Service of all his Subjects is by the Law of Nature Inseparably an nexed to and inherent in his Sacred Person It is somewhat strange that when so many Laws that we all know are suspended the Law of Nature which is so hard to be found out should be clted but the Penners of this Declaration had best let that Law lie forgotten among the rest and there is a scurvy Paragraph in it concerning self-Preservation that is capable of very unacceptable Glosses It is hard to tell what Section of the Law of Nature has markt either such a Form of Government or such a Family for it And if His Majesty renounces his Pretensions to our Allegeance as founded on the Laws of England and betakes himself to this Law of Nature he will perhaps find the Counsel was a little too rash but to make the most that can be the Law of Nations or Nature does indeed allow the Governors of all Societies a Power to serve themselves of every Member of it in the cases of Extream Danger but no Law of Nature that has been yet heard of will conclude that if by special Laws a sort of men have been disabled from all imployments that a Prince who at his Coronation Swore to maintaiu those Laws may at his pleasure extinguish all these Disabilities X. At the end of the Declaration as in a Postscript His Majesty assures his Subjects that he will maintain them in their Properties as well in Church and Abbey Lands as other Lands but the chief of all their Properties being the share that they have by their Representatives in the Legislative Power this Declaration which breaks thro that is no great Evidence that the rest will be maintained and to speak plainly when a Coronation Oath is so little remembred other Promises must have a proportioned degree of Credit given to them as for the Abbey Lands the keeping them from the Church is according to the Principles of that Religion Sacriledge and that is a mortal Sin and there can no Absolution be given to any who continue in it and so this Promise being an Obligation to maintain men in a mortal Sin is 〈◊〉 and void of it self Châ—rch Lands are also according to the Doctrine of their Canonists so immediately Gods Right that the Pope himself is the only Administrator and Dispeneer but is not the Master of them he can indeed make a truck for God or let them so low that God shall be an easie Landlord but he cannot alter God ' s Property nor translate the Right that is in him to Sacrilegious Laymen and Hereticks XI One of the Effects of this Declaration will be the setting on foot a new run of Adresses over the Nation for there is nothing how impudent and base soever of which the abject flattery of a slavish Spirit is not capable It must be confest to the Reproach of the Age that all those strains of flattery among the Romans that Tacitus sets forth with so much just Scorn are modest things compared to what this Nation has produced within these seven Years only if our Flattery has come short of the Refinedness of the Romans it has exceeded theirs as much in its loathed Fulsomneâ—s The late King set out a Declaration in which he gave the most solemn Assurances possible of his adhering to the Church of England and to the Religion established by Law and of his Resolution to have frequent Parliament upon which the whole
oblige the Subjects to defend this it had been more modest if they had been only bound to bear it and submit to it but it is a terrible thing so far to extinguish all the remnants of natural Liberty or of a Legal Government as to oblige the Subjects by Oath to maintain the Exercise of this which plainly must destroy themselves for the short execution by the Bow-strings of Turkey or by sending Orders to Men to return in their Heads being an Exercise of this Absolute Power it is a little too hard to make men swear to maintain the King in it and if that Kingdom has suffered so much by the many Oaths that have been in use among them as is marked in this Proclamation I am afraid this new Oath will not much mend the matter XIV Yet after all there is some Comfort his Majesty assures them he will use no Violence nor Force nor any Invincible Necessity to any man on the account of his perswasion It were too great a want of respect to fancy that a time may come in which even this may be remembrad full as well as the promises that were made to the Parliament after His Majesty came to the Crown I do not I Confess apprehend that for I see here so great a Caution used in the choice of these words that it is plain very great Severities may very well consist with them It is clear that the general words of Violence and Force are to be determined by these last of Invincible Necessity so that the King does only promise to lay no Invincible Necessity on his Subjects but for all Necessâ—ies that are not Invincible it seems thy must expect to bear a large share of them Disgraces want of Imployments Fines and Imprisonments and even Death it self are all Vincible things to a man of a â—irmness of mind so that the Violences of Torture the Furies of Dragooâ—s and some of the Methods now practised in France perhaps may be Included within this Promise since these seem almost Invincible to Humane Nature if it is not fortified with an Extraordinary measure of Grace but as to all other things His Majesty binds himself up from no part of the Exercise of His Absolute Power by this Promise XV. His Majesty Orders this to go Immediately to the Great Seal without passing through the other Seals now since this is â—â—unter-signed by the Secretary in whose hands the Signet is there was no other step to be made but through the Privy Seal so I must own I have a gâ—eat Curiosity of knowing his Character in whose hands the Privy Seal is at present for it seems his Conscience is not so very supple as the Chancellors and the Secretaries are but it is very likely if he does not quickly change his mind the Privy Seal at least will very quickly change its Keeper and I am sorry to hear that the Lord Chancellor and the Secretary have not another Brother to fill this post that so the guilt of the ruin of that Nation may lie on one siâ—gle Family and that there may be no others involved in it XVI Upon the whole matter many smaller things being waved it being extream unpleasant to find fault where one has all possible dispositions to pay all respect we here in England see what we must look for A Parliament in Scotland was tryed but it proved a little Stubborn and now Absolute Power comes to set all right so when the Closetting has gone round so that Noses are counted we may perhaps see a Parliament here but if it chanâ—â—s to be untoward and not to Obey without Reserve then our Reverend Judges will copy from Scotland and will not only tell us of the King 's Imperial Power but will discover to us this new Mystery of Absolute Power to whch we are all bound to Obey without Reserve These Reflexions refer in so many places to some words in the Proclamation that it was thought necessary to set them near one another that the Reader may be able to Iudge whether he is deceived by any false Quotations or not By the King A PROCLAMATION IAMES R. JAMES the Seventh by the Grace of God King of Scotland England France Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To all and sundry our good Subjects whom these presents do or may concern Greeting We have taken into our Royal Consideration the many and great inconveniencies which have happened to that our Ancient Kingdom of Scotland of late years through the different perswasions in the Christian Religion and the great Heats and Animosities amongst the several Professors thereof to the ruin and decay of Trade wasting of Lands extinguishing of Charity contempt of the Royal Power and converting of True Religion and the Fear of God into Animosities Names Fractions and sometimes into Sacrilege and Treason And being resolved as much as in us lyes to Unite the Hearts and Affections of Our Subjects to GOD in Religion to Us in Loyalty and to their Neighbours in Christian Love and Charity Have therefore thought fit to Grant and by Gur Souveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power which all Our Subjects are to Obey without Reserve Do hereby give and grant Our Royal Toleration to the several Professors of the Christian Religion after named with and under the several Conditions Restrictions and Limitations after-mentioned In the first place We allow and Tolerate the Moderate Presbyterians to Meet in their Private Houses and there to hear all such Ministers as either have or are willing to accept of Our Indulgence allanerly and none other and that there be not any thing said or done contrary to the Well and Peace of Our Reign Seditious or Treasonable under the highest Pains these Crimes will import nor are they to presume to Build Meeting-Houses or to use Out-Houses or Barns but only to exercise in their Private Houses as said is In the mean time it is Our Royal Will and Pleasure that Field-Conventicles and such as Preach or Exercise at them or who shall any ways assist or connive at them shall be prosecuted according to the utmost Severity of our Laws made against them seeing from these Rendezvouzes of Rebellion so much Disorder hath proceeded and so much Disturbance to the Government and for which after this Our Royal Indulgence for tender Consciences there is no Excuse lefâ— In like manner we do hereby tolerate Quakers to meet and Exercise in their Form in any Place or Places appointed for their Worship And considering the Severe and Cruel Laws made against Roman Catholicks therein called Papists in the Minority of Our Royal Grand Father of * Glorious Memory without His Consent and contrary to the Duty of good Subjects by His Regents and other Enemies to their Lawful Soveraigns Our Royal Great Grand Mother Queen Mary of Blessed and Pious Memory wherein â—nder the pretence of Religion they cloathed the worst of Treasons Factions and Usurpations and 〈◊〉 these Laws not as against